Randy
Brown and Muslim
Salikhov will still get to handle their business, just a few
months later than they initially expected.
Ahead of UFC 296 at the end of 2023, Brown (17-5) and Salikhov
(19-4) were planning on coming to blows at welterweight. A day
before the event, Brown
was hospitalized from an illness, and he was forced out of the
pairing. The Ultimate Fighting Championship opted to
preserve the matchup instead of giving them different opponents,
and they will now square off on Feb. 3. ESPN
revealed the bout on Thursday, and the organization
announced shortly thereafter that they would be competing at
UFC Fight Night 235 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Brown is coming off a unanimous decision victory against Wellington
Turman in June 2023, which put him back in the win column.
Before then, he had a four-fight winning streak dragged to a halt
courtesy of a first-round submission by Jack
Della Maddalena at
UFC 284. In that stretch, Brown defeated names including
Kalinn
Williams and Francisco
Trinaldo.
Salikhov has also been out of action since June, and he will look
to return to his winning ways after suffering a decision loss to
Nicolas
Dalby at UFC on ESPN 47. The Russian’s lone victory in the last
couple years did come in spectacular fashion, as he wiped out
Andre
Fialho with a spinning wheel kick in late 2022. Since joining
the promotion in 2017, “King of Kung Fu” has been plagued with
injury, illness and opponent withdrawals, and he has averaged less
than two appearances per year.
UFC Fight Night 235 will be headlined by a clash between top-ranked
middleweights Roman
Dolidze and Nassourdine
Imavov. Additionally, the co-main event will feature a
lightweight battle between lightweight top-15 fighters Renato
Carneiro and Drew Dober.
The fight card has been hit with multiple changes as of late, as
Charles
Johnson will now fight Azat
Maksum at flyweight, while Pete
Rodriguez steps into a 170-pound tilt against Themba
Gorimbo.