Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Sergey Morozov moved to UFC on ESPN 20 on Jan. 20

The rescheduled bantamweight matchup between Umar Nurmagomedov and Sergey Morozov will take place three days earlier than initially expected.

Originally booked for the UFC 257 card on Jan. 23, the octagon newcomers will now square off at UFC on ESPN 20 on Jan. 20, which takes place on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi.

A person with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the change but asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. Reporter Igor Lazorin was the first to report the news.

Nurmagomedov (12-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has seen three UFC bookings fall through ahead of his promotional debut. He was scheduled to make his first octagon appearance against Hunter Azure at UFC 249 this past April, but the event was postponed due to restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic. He was then set to face Nathaniel Wood at this past July’s UFC on ESPN 14 but withdrew due to the death of his uncle and coach, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, following complications from COVID-19.

His latest attempt to make his promotional debut also fell through when he was forced to withdraw just one week out from his matchup against Morozov at October’s UFC 254 due to a staph infection.

Winner of his past five in a row, Morozov (16-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) hasn’t competed since October 2019, when he defended his M-1 Global bantamweight title with a unanimous decision win over Josh Rettinghouse.

With the change, the updated lineup for UFC on ESPN 20 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)

• 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