Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Chalk up one more opponent change for
Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight Seung Woo
Choi. On Wednesday night, MMA
DNA first reported that Collin
Anglin (8-1) had been forced to withdraw from his prospective
debut against Choi (8-3). In his stead will be a man matched
against him in 2020, with Youssef
Zalal (10-3) stepping up on short notice. The two were
originally scheduled to face off at UFC Fight Night 179, but Choi
was forced out for undisclosed reasons. Zalal and Choi will be
squaring off at
UFC Fight Night 184 on Feb. 6, which will take place in the UFC
Apex in Las Vegas. Zalal confirmed that he was stepping in on his
Instagram
late Wednesday.
South Korea’s Choi rebounded from a pair of loses to Movsar
Evloev and Gavin
Tucker to win a decision against Suman
Mokhtarian at the end of 2019. Choi scored three knockouts in
four bouts from 2016 to 2017 to earn a spot on the roster after a
lengthy layoff, only to encounter the still unbeaten Evloev. All of
his career stoppages have come by knockout or technical knockout,
with no submission victories to his credit.
Zalal, who was expecting to take on Choi in October, instead
matched up against Ilia
Topuria. The Spaniard stayed undefeated by capturing a
hard-fought decision to snap Zalal’s four-fight win streak. Before
joining the roster in 2020, “The Moroccan Devil” had never won a
bout on the scorecards. All three of his UFC triumphs over Austin
Lingo, Jordan
Griffin and Peter
Barrett came by decision, before running into Topuria while
trying to go 4-0 in 2020.
UFC Fight Night 184 goes down on Feb. 6 at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas, with a heavyweight headliner pitting Alistair
Overeem against Alexander
Volkov. The co-main event comes in the form of a bantamweight
brawl between Cory
Sandhagen and Frankie
Edgar, while other key matchups on the card include Alexandre
Pantoja vs. Manel Kape
at flyweight and Diego
Ferreira vs. Beneil
Dariush 2 at lightweight.
