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UFC Abu Dhabi loses major contender fight

Mathew Riddle|
(Zuffa LLC)

UFC Abu Dhabi has lost a promising flyweight matchup.

Remarkably, the July 26 Fight Night has suffered only one cancellation so far and remains one of, if not the most, stacked Fight Night cards of the year.

The Etihad Arena-based event features the middleweight contender fight between Robert Whittaker and former ONE FC double-champion Reinier de Ridder.

Asu Almabaye
Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Jose Ochoa steps in against Asu Almabayev at UFC Abu Dhabi

As reported by Sport Kor and corroborated by Marcel Dorff, the flyweight contender fight between Ramazan Temirov and Asu Almabayev at UFC Abu Dhabi is off. Temirov has reportedly withdrawn.

Instead, Almabayev will fight Jose Ochoa, who scored a brutal knockout over the battle-tested Cody Durden at UFC Atlanta in June.

With this news, UFC Abu Dhabi maintains thirteen fights, subject to change:

  • Robert Whittaker vs. Reinier de Ridder; middle
  • Movsar Evloev vs. Aaron Pico; five round feather
  • Nikita Krylov vs. Bogdan Guskov; light heavy
  • Shara Magomedov vs. Marc-Andre Barriault; middle
  • Petr Yan vs. Marcus McGhee; bantam
  • Bryce Mitchell vs. Said Nurmagomedov; bantam
  • Ibo Aslan vs. Billy Elekana; light heavy
  • Amanda Ribas vs. Tabatha Ricci; straw
  • Muslim Salikhov vs. Carlos Leal; welter
  • Da'Mon Blackshear vs. Davey Grant; bantam
  • Mohammad Yahya vs. Steven Nguyen; feather
  • Martin Buday vs. Marcus Buchecha; heavy
  • Asu Almabayev vs. Jose Ochoa; fly

UFC Abu Dhabi could determine the next title challengers in the middleweight, featherweight, and bantamweight divisions.

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Mathew Riddle
MATHEW RIDDLE

Mathew is a UK-based combat sports journalist, graphic designer, and SEO expert with half a decade of digital marketing and a dedicated four-year track record in MMA journalism. He joined MMA Knockout when it was founded in 2023. Mathew's insights have been featured on Bloody Elbow, The Fight Fanatic, and Heavy on UFC. He runs Warrior Tribune and can be contacted by his Muckrack profile.

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