UFC on ESPN 20 gets Omari Akhmedov vs. Tom Breese after four-day COVID-19 delay

Omari Akhmedov vs. Tom Breese is still in the UFC’s plans – just for a later date than expected.

The middleweight matchup was originally scheduled for Saturday’s UFC on ABC 1 card on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. However, the promotion announced Tuesday the fight has been pushed back to UFC on ESPN 20, which takes place Wednesday, Jan. 20, due to “COVID-19 related issues.” The UFC did not elaborate further on the matter.

Akhmedov (20-5-1 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) has only lost once in his most recent seven outings. After he went 5-0-1 in six fights, Akhmedov fought former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in August and lost a unanimous decision.

Breese (12-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) returned from a 21-month layoff in February 2020 and lost by first-round TKO to Brendan Allen. In October, he returned and defeated promotional newcomer KB Bhullar by TKO in 1 minute, 43 seconds.

With the addition, the UFC on ESPN 20 lineup includes:

MAIN CARD (ESPN, ESPN+, 12 p.m. ET)

• Michael Chiesa vs. Neil Magny
• Warlley Alves vs. Mounir Lazzez
• Vinicius Moreira vs. Ike Villanueva
• Viviane Araujo vs. Roxanne Modafferi
• Lerone Murphy vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, ESPN+, 9 a.m. ET)

• Omari Akhmedov vs. Tom Breese
• Gaetano Pirrello vs. Ricky Simon
• Zarrukh Adashev vs. Su Mudaerji
• Dalcha Lungiambula vs. Markus Perez
• Francisco Figueredo vs. Jerome Rivera
• Mike Davis vs. Mason Jones
• Tyson Nam vs. Matt Schnell
• Manon Fiorot vs. Victoria Leonardo
• Sergey Morozov vs. Umar Nurmagomedov