Makwan Amirkhani will need a new opponent for UFC 267.
According to Amirkhani, Tristan Connelly (14-7 MMA, 1-1 UFC) is out of their Oct. 30 fight in Abu Dhabi due to undisclosed reasons. MMA Junkie confirmed the news with a person with knowledge of the situation who asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Amirkhani (16-6 MMA, 6-4 UFC), who is expected to remain on the card, took to Instagram to react to the news.
“Yes he is out. It’s a sad story cause it would have been a great matchup between me and Tristan. He said in a interview that he is not expecting that same Makwan what we have been seeing in my last fights. “We will see a hungry Amirkhani. Tristan you where right on that one brother and now I’m even more hungrier! I’m the flow. 30.10.2021 #ufc.”
Amirkhani is looking to snap a two-fight losing skid after dropping back-to-back unanimous decision losses to Edson Barboza and Kamuela Kirk. Prior to that, “Mr. Finland” picked up a first-round submission of Danny Henry at UFC 251.
Canada’s Connelly was also looking to get back in the win column. After upsetting Michel Pereira in his promotional debut, Connelly returned from a 19-month layoff due to injury, but fell short in his featherweight debut when he was defeated by former CFFC champion Pat Sabatini at UFC 261 in April.
With the change, the UFC 267 lineup includes:
- Champ Jan Blachowicz vs. Glover Teixeira – for light heavyweight title
- Champ Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan – for bantamweight title
- Rafael dos Anjos vs. Islam Makhachev
- Magomed Ankalaev vs. Volkan Oezdemir
- Marcin Tybura vs. Alexander Volkov
- Khamzat Chimaev vs. Li Jingliang
- Virna Jandiroba vs. Amanda Ribas
- Ricardo Ramos vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
- Damir Ismagulov vs. Magomed Mustafaev
- Makwan Amirkhani vs. TBA
- Alen Amedovski vs. Hu Yaozong
- Allan Nascimento vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
- Shamil Gamzatov vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk
- Walt Harris vs. Tai Tuivasa
- Damir Ismagulov vs. Magomed Mustafaev
