A Ultimate Fighting Championship fight previously
booked between Chris
Curtis and Anthony
Hernandez has completely transformed.
On Wednesday, Hernandez announced that he
had suffered an injury during training, and that he has been forced
out of the
Noche UFC event in September. At one time, middleweights Curtis
and Hernandez were set to square off, but Curtis also sustained
an injury that knocked him out of the pairing. Roman
Kopylov (11-2) tagged in to face Hernandez, and now Josh Fremd
(11-4) will be taking Hernandez’ place. Fremd confirmed his
short-notice appearance on Instagram on
Wednesday.
Fremd appeared earlier in August to snag a decision over Jamie
Pickett, and in the process put himself on a win streak in the
Octagon. In March, Fremd snapped a two-bout skid by tapping out
Sedriques
Dumas in the second round. Before then, Fremd unsuccessfully
debuted in the promotion against Hernandez in April 2022, and
Tresean
Gore put him to sleep with a guillotine choke last October.
Like Fremd, Kopylov currently has momentum on his side. The Russian
has racked up three straight knockouts from 2022 to now, putting
away Alessio
Di Chirico, Punahele
Soriano and Claudio
Ribeiro in the span about 11 months. Also like Fremd, Kopylov
dropped his first two outings in the UFC. In 2019, Karl
Roberson tapped him with a late rear-naked choke, and thereby
ended the unbeaten streak of the fighter from Novosibirsk. A
rebound effort nearly two years later – thanks in part to multiple
COVID-related cancelations and visa issues – also saw him fall
short, this time to Albert
Duraev.
Noche UFC, also known as UFC Fight Night 227, will take place at
the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sept. 16. Atop the billing will
be a 125-pound title fight pitting new divisional queen Alexa
Grasso against ex-champ Valentina
Shevchenko. The co-headliner will see Kevin
Holland and Jack
Della Maddalena battle it out in a welterweight scrap. Other
fights on the card include a flyweight contest between Tracy
Cortez and Jasmine
Jasudavicius, as well as a strawweight tilt as Lupita
Godinez faces off against Sam Hughes.