Ilia Topuria moves up to lightweight, meets Jai Herbert at UFC London
After getting pulled from his most recent outing due to weight cut complications, Ilia Topuria will be moving up a weight class.
Mike Davis has withdrawn from UFC London and Topuria (11-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) will step in to face Jai Herbert (11-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC) in a lightweight bout on March 19 at O2 Arena.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup confirmed the booking to MMA Junkie after an initial report from MMA reporter Gonzalo Campos. The people requested anonymity since UFC officials have yet to make an announcement.
Topuria, who has competed at both bantamweight and featherweight throughout his career, will be making his 155-pound debut. The unbeaten 25-year-old prospect was pulled from his UFC 270 matchup with Charles Jourdain after he was not medically cleared to compete due to weight cut-related issues. Topuria is coming off back-to-back first-round knockouts of Damon Jackson and Ryan Hall.
After tough setbacks to Francisco Trinaldo and Renato Moicano, former Cage Warriors champion Herbert entered the UFC win column when he scored a first-round TKO of Khama Worthy this past October.
With the change, the UFC London lineup now includes:
- Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall
- Arnold Allen vs. Dan Hooker
- Paddy Pimblett vs. Kazula Vargas
- Jake Hadley vs. Allan Nascimento
- Luana Carolina vs. Molly McCann
- Cody Durden vs. Muhammad Mokaev
- Makwan Amirkhani vs. Mike Grundy
- Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev
- Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Sergei Pavlovich
- Gunnar Nelson vs. Claudio Silva
- Cory McKenna vs. Elise Reed
- Paul Craig vs. Nikita Krylov
- Liudvik Sholinian vs. Nathaniel Wood
- Jai Herbert vs. Ilia Topuria
Ilia Topuria moves up to lightweight, meets Jai Herbert at UFC London