Heavy hitters Ryan Spann and Ion Cutelaba will throw down in February.
Spann (19-7 MMA, 5-2 UFC) meets Cutelaba (16-6-1 MMA, 5-5-1 UFC) at UFC Fight Night on Feb. 26, which takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
A person with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the booking but asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. MMA Island first reported the news.
Kicking off his UFC tenure at 4-0, Fortis MMA’s Spann has lost two of his past three. The Dana White’s Contender Series graduate scored a first-round “Performance of the Night” TKO of Misha Cirkunov in March, but was then submitted by former title challenger Anthony Smith in his first UFC headliner in September.
After getting stopped in back-to-back bouts against Magomed Ankalaev and battling Dustin Jacoby to a split draw, Cutelaba notched his first win since September 2019 when he defeated Devin Clark via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 192 in September.
With the addition, the UFC’s Feb. 26 lineup now includes:
- Beneil Dariush vs. Islam Makhachev
- Ignacio Bahamondes vs. Rong Zhu
- Hannah Goldy vs. Jinh Yu Frey
- Joel Alvarez vs. Arman Tsarukyan
- Misha Cirkunov vs. Makhmud Muradov
- Victor Altamirano vs. Carlos Hernandez
- Terrance McKinney vs. Fares Ziam
- Ion Cutelaba vs. Ryan Spann
