A heavyweight clash pitting Chris
Daukaus against Shamil
Abdurakhimov that was originally slated for UFC on ESPN 27 this
Saturday has been pushed back one week.
Multiple outlets confirmed the change following an initial
announcement from Daukaus via Twitter. Daukaus revealed that
COVID-19 protocols forced the postponement, and
MMAjunkie.com later reported that a positive test in the
Abdurakhimov camp was the cause.
Fight pushed back until next week, Covid
strikes again! Thank you for everyone for the support! pic.twitter.com/etIN1s2rVr— Chris Daukaus (@ChrisDaukausMMA)
July 19, 2021
Daukaus vs. Abdurakhimov will now take place at
UFC on ESPN 28 on July 31. That card takes place at the UFC
Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a middleweight showdown
between Uriah Hall
and Sean
Strickland.
Daukaus is on a four-bout winning streak – including three in UFC
competition. The 31-year-old Philadelphia native has kicked off his
promotional tenure with first-round finishes of Parker
Porter, Rodrigo
Nascimento Ferreira and Alexey
Oleynik. He is 11-3 as a pro and has finished 10 of those
triumphs inside the distance.
Abdurakhimov hasn’t competed since September 2019, when he suffered
a second-round TKO defeat to Curtis
Blaydes at UFC 242. Prior to that, the 39-year-old Dagestani
was on a three-bout winning streak within the Las Vegas-based
promotion.