Due to the fact that the American’s recovery will take about eight months, the league’s management decided to play out the interim UFC title between Sergey Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall. The Russian-British confrontation will be the second most important event of the numbered event, and the show will be headlined by a bantamweight title fight between Jiri Prohazka and Alex Pereira.
The reshuffle was officially announced by UFC CEO Dana White.
Sergey Pavlovic, 31, is riding a six-fight win streak in the UFC, having knocked out all of his opponents in the first round, while Tom Aspinall, 30, made a successful return to the octagon in July after suffering a knee injury, defeating Marcin Tybura in 63 seconds.
Sergey Pavlovic and Tom Aspinall are currently ranked second and fourth in the UFC heavyweight division rankings, respectively.