It was reported last week that Teemu Packalen has suffered an injury and won’t compete against Marcin Held at UFC Fight Night Gdansk.
Held was expected to remain on the card and may have an opponent now in the form of Nasrat Haqparast.
MMA Today first reported the encounter.
Held (22-7-0) has gone winless thus far in his three fights under the UFC banner. Those three losses in the UFC came over the trio of Diego Sanchez, Joe Lauzon and Damir Hadzovic. Held has previously challenged for the Bellator MMA Lightweight Title, losing to then champion Will Brooks by unanimous decision at Bellator 145. Held hasn’t earned a victory in well over a year, with his last win coming over Dave Jansen at Bellator 155.
Haqparast (8-1-0) is going to be making his UFC debut in this fight and he does so on the strength of an eight fight winning streak. Haqparast has yet to see any of his nine professional MMA fights go the distance and seven of those fights ended in the opening round. Haqparast is also a veteran of the We Love MMA promotion, winning four of the five fights he competed at there.
UFC Fight Night Gdansk takes place on Saturday, October 21 from the Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland with Donald Cerrone and Darren Till headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which streams live on UFC Fight Pass.
