OH. MY. GOODNESS.
@DricusDuPlessis
putting South Africa on the map!
#UFC264 pic.twitter.com/kinqJld3o9— UFC (@ufc)
July 11, 2021
Kelvin
Gastelum will remain on the UFC 273 card after all, as Dricus Du
Plessis has agreed to step in and face “The Ultimate Fighter
17” winner on April 9.
Gastelum was originally slated to meet Nassourdine
Imavov before the bout was canceled due to visa issues for his
opponent. ESPN
was first to report the new middleweight booking. Du Plessis was
scheduled to fight Anthony
Hernandez at UFC 273, but according to
MMAFighting.com, Hernandez will remain on the bill and lock
horns with promotional newcomer Josh
Fremd.
This is the third different opponent for Du Plessis at UFC 273.
Before being booked against Hernandez, he was supposed to square
off against Chris
Curtis, who pulled out due to a wrist injury. The former KSW
and EFC champion has won four straight fights, including
back-to-back knockouts of Trevin
Giles and Markus
Perez in the Octagon.
Gastelum has lost five of his last six Octagon appearances,
including a unanimous decision defeat to Jared
Cannonier in his last outing at UFC on ESPN 29. Imavov is 3-1
in the promotion and is coming off back-to-back triumphs over
Ian
Heinisch and Edmen
Shahbazyan.
UFC 273 takes place at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in
Jacksonville, Fla., and is headlined by a featherweight title tilt
between Alexander
Volkanovski and Chan Sung
Jung.