Zviad
Lazishvili has agreed to step in on three days’ notice and face
Jonathan
Martinez at
UFC Fight Night 196.
Lazishvili will serve as a replacement for Aaron
Phillips in the bantamweight bout. MMA Ideas was first
to report the change. UFC Fight Night 196 takes place at the UFC
Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday and is headlined by a middleweight
duel between Paulo Costa
and Marvin
Vettori.
A native of Tbilisi, Georgia, Lazishvili will make his Octagon
debut with an 8-0 professional mark. Most recently, the 29-year-old
submitted Ricky
Steele in the opening round of their bout at Legacy Fighting
Alliance 90 in September 2020.
Martinez, meanwhile, is 4-3 in UFC competition since his 2018
debut. In his last outing, the Factory X product had a two-bout
winning streak snapped in a second-round KO loss to Davey Grant
at UFC Fight Night 187.