With less than a week to go before the highly anticipated UFC 217 event, the card has undergone a minor change.
A light heavyweight division fight between Ovince St. Preux and Corey Anderson has been moved from the UFC Fight Pass portion of the preliminary card to the Fox Sports 1 portion of the preliminary card.
OSP enters the fight as a late replacement for Patrick Cummins, who was forced to pull out of the fight due to a staph infection.
St. Preux (21-10-0) enters the fight on the strength of a two fight winning streak, defeating Yushin Okami and Marcos Rogerio De Lima. St. Preux has previously challenged for the UFC Interim Light Heavyweight Title, losing to Jon Jones at UFC 197. St. Preux has previously fought Anderson’s original UFC 217 opponent in Patrick Cummins, defeating him by knockout at UFC On Fox 15.
Anderson (9-3-0) has won just one of his last three fights, with that lone win coming over Sean O’Connell at UFC Fight Night 102. Anderson was the winner of the UFC Ultimate Fighter 19, defeating Matt Van Buren in the finals of the reality show. Anderson has seen his last two fights end with some kind of finish and it has been over a year since one of his bouts went the distance.
Also, another light heavyweight division bout between Ion Cutelaba and Michal Oleksiejczuk has been moved from the Fox Sports 1 portion of the preliminary card to the UFC Fight Pass portion of the preliminary card.
Cutelaba (13-3-0-1NC) has rotated wins and losses throughout his UFC run, with his last fight being a victory over Henrique Da Silva at UFC Fight Night 110. Cutelaba also competed once under the Cage Warriors banner, dropping a fight to Michal Andryszak at Cage Warriors 58 in August 2013. Cutelaba has only seen two of his seventeen bouts as a professional MMA fighter go the distance.
Oleksiejczuk (12-2-0) is going to be making his UFC debut in this fight and he is also the current Thunderstrike Fight League Light Heavyweight Champion. Oleksiejczuk hasn’t suffered a defeat in over three years and that last loss came to Marcin Wojcik at PLMMA 44. Oleksiejczuk has seen seven of his professional MMA fights end within the opening round and only three of his bouts have gone the distance.
The UFC didn’t give an official statement on why the changes were made to the card.
UFC 217 takes place on Saturday, November 4 from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York with Michael Bisping and Georges St. Pierre headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
