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UFC Fight Night 173: Figueiredo vs. Benavidez 2 is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on July 18, 2020 at the Flash Forum on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Fight card
Main card (ESPN+)
Flyweight Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Joseph Benavidez Vacant UFC Flyweight Championship
Middleweight Jack Hermansson vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Lightweight Marc Diakiese vs. Rafael Fiziev
Women's Flyweight Ariane Lipski vs. Luana Carolina
Flyweight Alexandre Pantoja vs. Askar Askarov
Preliminary Card (ESPN+)
Light Heavyweight Khadis Ibragimov vs. Roman Dolidze
Catchweight (150 lb) Grant Dawson vs. Nad Narimani
Lightweight Joseph Duffy vs. Joel Álvarez
Bantamweight Brett Johns vs. Montel Jackson
Flyweight Malcolm Gordon vs. Amir Albazi
Lightweight Davi Ramos vs. Arman Tsarukyan
Heavyweight Sergey Spivak vs. Carlos Felipe
Background
This event will be the third of four UFC Fight Island events scheduled to take place on Yas Island in July 2020, following UFC 251 and UFC on ESPN: Kattar vs. Ige, as part of a plan to facilitate the hosting of events involving fighters impacted by U.S. travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Without fans in attendance, the promotion does not have to worry about the local timing of the event, so the plan is to proceed with normal timing for prime time hours on the east coast of North America. The main card is scheduled to begin at 5:00 am (July 19) local time in Abu Dhabi, with a full preliminary card beginning at approximately 2:00 am Gulf Standard Time.
A UFC Flyweight Championship rematch for the vacant title between Deiveson Figueiredo and former title challenger Joseph Benavidez is expected serve as the event headliner. With former UFC Flyweight and Bantamweight Champion Henry Cejudo vacating his flyweight title in December 2019, the pairing then met at UFC Fight Night: Benavidez vs. Figueiredo in February to determine the new champion. Figueiredo won via second round TKO, but the title remained vacant because he missed weight. On July 11, it was announced that Figueiredo tested positive for COVID-19, leaving the title bout in jeopardy. According to his manager, Wallid Ismail, a second test will be administered before an official decision is made regarding Figueiredo's possible removal from the event. Ismail said that Figueiredo already tested positive for COVID-19 two months ago and believes that this test is a false positive. A day later, it was confirmed that Figueiredo passed his second test and will travel to Abu Dhabi, though he still needs to pass other tests upon arrival.
A heavyweight bout between Sergey Spivak and Carlos Felipe was scheduled for the original May 9 date of UFC 250 that later became UFC 249, but was eventually scrapped due to that change. The pairing was rescheduled for this event.
A light heavyweight bout between Roman Dolidze and Khadis Ibragimov was initially scheduled for the promotion's inaugural event in Kazakhstan planned a month prior. However, the fight was postponed after the card was moved to Las Vegas due to travel restrictions for both participants related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pairing was left intact and rescheduled for this event.
A lightweight bout between Marc Diakiese and Alan Patrick was scheduled for the event. However, Patrick withdrew on June 14 for an unknown reason and was replaced by Rafael Fiziev.
Tagir Ulanbekov was expected to face Aleksander Doskalchuk in a flyweight bout at this event. However, he pulled out on July 3 after Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, father of current UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, passed away due to complications related to COVID-19. In turn, Doskalchuk pulled out a week later due to undisclosed reasons. They were replaced by Malcolm Gordon and Amir Albazi respectively.
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