Austin Vanderford vs. Grachik Bozinyan Credit score: Bellator MMA
Austin Vanderford acquired one of many largest snubs in Contender Collection historical past (maybe exterior of Brendan Loughnane) again in 2018, neglected regardless of submitting his opponent — however he’s lastly landed within the UFC.
After difficult for gold in Bellator, exiting the promotion final 12 months, and selecting up a win in LFA, Vanderford (12-2) has joined UFC Seattle, the place he’ll face Nikolay Veretennikov (12-5).
Cageside Press confirmed the reserving following an preliminary report from Full Ship MMA. As a result of short-notice nature of the pairing for each fighters, the combat shall be contested at a catchweight of 175lbs.
Husband of former UFC and BKFC star Paige VanZant, Vanderford earned 5 straight victories below the Bellator banner from 2019 to 2021 to earn a shot at then-middleweight champ Gegard Mousasi. After being completed by Mousasi, Vanderford suffered one other TKO defeat by the hands of fellow Contender Collection vet Aaron Jeffery. Lacking all of 2023, Vanderford returned to motion in October, making brief work of Victor Romero at LFA 194.
UFC Seattle takes place on February 22, and has taken quite a few hits, dropping Dominick Cruz particularly (who subsequently introduced his retirement), in addition to Curtis Blaydes vs. Rizvan Kuniev (shifted to UFC 313) and Macy Chiasson vs. Ketlen Vieira (off because of a Chiasson harm).
The next match-ups stay connected to the cardboard on the Local weather Pledge Area in Seattle, WA:
Henry Cejudo vs. Track Yadong
Brendan Allen vs. Anthony Hernandez
Rob Font vs. Jean Matsumoto
Jean Silva vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan
Alonzo Menifield vs. Julius Walker
Ion Cuțelaba vs. Ibo Aslan
Andre Fili vs. Melquizael Costa
Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Nick Klein
Ricky Simón vs. Javid Basharat
Nikolay Veretennikov vs. Austin Vanderford
Nursulton Ruziboev vs. Eric McConico
Modestas Bukauskas vs. Raffael Cerqueira
