Joel Alvarez is taking his talents to 170 pounds.
Alvarez, who was previously ranked at lightweight, is set to make his UFC welterweight debut against veteran Vicente Luque. The two are scheduled to clash at UFC Fight Night 261 in Rio de Janeiro on Oct. 11. Alvarez steps in as a replacement for Santiago Ponzinibbio, who withdrew from the bout due to injury.
The news was announced by the UFC following an initial report from ABC MMA.
Alvarez (22-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC), who had failed to make lightweight twice before in the UFC, had told MMA Junkie following his most recent win in December that he was leaving the 155 pound division due to his size and how lengthy his training camps had to be to make the weight. Now at 170 pounds, the Spanish fighter looks to fight more often. Alvarez is on a three-fight winning streak, with all coming by stoppage. He’s 7-1 in his past eight outings, with the lone defeat coming against top contender Arman Tsarukyan.
Luque (23-11-1 MMA, 16-7 UFC) will look to get himself back on the win column, and distance himself from a career rut that’s plagued him in recent years. Since 2022, Luque has gone 2-4 with three of those defeats coming by stoppage. In his last outing back in June, he was submitted by Kevin Holland.
Below is the updated card of UFC FIght Night 261: Main (ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
- Charles Oliveira vs. Mateusz Gamrot
- Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Montel Jackson
- Jhonata Diniz vs. Mario Pinto
- Joel Alvarez vs. Vicente Luque
Preliminary (ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET)
- Clayton Carpenter vs. Jafel Filho
- Thomas Petersen vs. Vitor Petrino
- Stewart Nicoll vs. Lucas Rocha
- Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Julia Polastri
- Mohammed Usman vs. Valter Walker
- Kaan Ofli vs. Ricardo Ramos
- Lucas Almeida vs. Michael Aswell
- Stephanie Luciano vs. Ravena Oliveira
- HyunSung Park vs. Bruno Silva
- Danny Barlow vs. Djorden Santos
- Irina Alekseeva vs. Bia Mesquita
- Luan Lacerda vs. Saimon Oliveira
