Add one more chip to the overstacked pile that is the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return trip to
“Fight Island” in October.
The organization released
on Friday news of the light heavyweight booking between Volkan
Oezdemir (18-6) and Nikita
Krylov (28-9), which will be set for
UFC 280 on Oct. 22. This event will be held at the Etihad Arena
on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. They were
initially supposed to throw down in this locale two years ago, but
Oezdemir suffered a knee injury. This will be a relatively quick
turnaround for both men, as they each pulled off wins at UFC Fight
Night 208 in London at the end of July.
Oezdemir put an end to a two-fight skid by handling Paul Craig
across their three-round engagement. “No Time” had Craig hurt in
multiple exchanges, and never fully engaged in the ground game that
Craig excels greatly. Prior to that, the Swiss 205er had suffered a
knockout to future champ Jiri
Prochazka and then dropped a decision to Magomed
Ankalaev. As a pro, Oezdemir celebrates a finish rate of 72%,
but he has recorded nine knockouts in two minutes or less
throughout his career.
“The Miner” Krylov dwarfs Oezdemir’s stoppage rate, going the
distance just one time across 28 career wins (96%). That lone
decision came over Johnny
Walker in 2020, and is bookended by a submission over Ovince St.
Preux in their rematch, and a recent knockout of Alexander
Gustafsson in his last time out. The Ukrainian holds seven
knockouts in less than 120 seconds, but has also hit nine
submissions in that amount of time or less.
UFC 280 will go down at the Etihad Arena on Yas Island in Abu
Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Oct. 22. A pair of championship
bouts will serve as the main attraction, with the headliner a
vacant lightweight title tilt between Charles
Oliveira and Islam
Makhachev. The co-main will have Aljamain
Sterling defend his 135-pound throne against ex-champ T.J.
Dillashaw. It is unclear if Oezdemir-Krylov will be placed on
the main card given the disproportionately high number of ranked
pairings on the card.