Longtime middleweight veteran Jack Hermansson is dropping to the welterweight division, and his first opponent will be someone who has fought many times at lightweight.
In a booking no one could have seen coming, Hermansson (24-9 MMA, 11-7 UFC) will take on Myktybek Orolbai (14-2-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 265 in Qatar on Nov. 22. The event takes place at ABHA Arena in Doha (ESPN+).
Both athlete verified the booking on social media following an initial report from X user @realkevink.
Hermansson, 37, will hope that a change in scenery will lead to more consistent results. He’s alternated wins and losses over his past 10 fights and is coming off a knockout loss to Gregory Rodrigues at UFC 317 in June.
Orolbai, 27, has won three of four times thus far in his UFC tenure, but was ripped by UFC CEO Dana White following his June win over Tofiq Musaev, which had to be shifted to a 165-pound weight catchweight after apparent weight management issues.
The latest UFC Fight Night 265 lineup now includes:
- Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
- Shamil Gaziev vs. Serghei Spivac
- Asu Almabayev vs. Alex Perez
- Rafael Cerqueira vs. Abdulrakhman Yakhyaev
- Bekzat Almakhan vs. Aleksandre Topuria
- Felipe Lima vs. Daniel Marcos
- Ryan Loder vs. Ismail Naurdiev
- Marek Bujlo vs. Jose Luiz
- Jack Hermansson vs. Myktybek Orolbai
