Takashi
Sato has agreed to step in and replace the injured Claudio
Silva and face Gunnar
Nelson at UFC London.
ESPN
was first to report the new welterweight booking.
UFC Fight Night 204 takes place at the O2 Arena in London is
currently scheduled to be headlined by a heavyweight clash between
Tom
Aspinall and Alexander
Volkov.
A veteran of the Pancrase and Deep organizations, Sato is 2-2 in
UFC competition. The 31-year-old Tokyo native will compete for the
first time since November 2020, when he suffered a second-round
submission defeat to Miguel
Baeza at UFC on ESPN 18.
Nelson will be making his first appearance since September 2019,
when he fell to Gilbert
Burns via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 160. The
33-year-old Iceland native has lost three of four promotion
appearances after beginning his UFC tenure with a 7-2 mark.