UFC Fight Night 265 will see a fight week change to a main card matchup.
Serghei Spivac was set to compete Saturday at ABHA Arena in Doha, Qatar, against Shamil Gaziev. However, Spivac (17-6 MMA, 8-6 UFC) has withdrawn from the heavyweight contest during fight week. Luckily for Gaziev (14-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC), a replacement opponent is being finalized on just three days’ notice: Waldo Cortes-Acosta. MMA Junkie confirmed the news with two sources following a first report from ESPN Deportes.
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Cortes-Acosta (15-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) competed three weeks ago in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 263 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He won the fight against Ante Delija after one of the wildest sequences of events in recent memory.
Gaziev will get to keep his fight date this time. He has been scheduled to compete against Spivac on two other occasions in 2025. The Dagestani heavyweight’s last fight was in February, where he knocked out Thomas Petersen in the first round at UFC Fight Night 250.
With the change, the current UFC Fight Night 265 lineup includes:
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Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dan Hooker
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Ian Machado Garry vs. Belal Muhammad
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Alonzo Menifield vs. Volkan Oezdemir
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Jack Hermansson vs. Myktybek Orolbai
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Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Shamil Gaziev
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Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
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Bogdan Grad vs. Luke Riley
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Nicolas Dalby vs. Saygid Izagakhmaev
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Asu Almabayev vs. Alex Perez
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Rafael Cerqueira vs. Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev
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Bekzat Almakhan vs. Aleksandre Topuria
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Ryan Loder vs. Ismail Naurdiev
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Nurullo Aliev vs. Shem Rock
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Marek Bujlo vs. Denzel Freeman
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Qatar: Serghei Spivac out, Shamil Gaziev gets new opponent
