The UFC’s famed Octagon returns to Abu Dhabi on Saturday for a UFC Fight Night event headlined by former light heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev taking on Bogdan Guskov.Guskov is stepping in on relatively short notice after former title challenger Khalil Rountree Jr. was forced to withdraw from his planned fight with Ankalaev. Rountree vs. Ankalaev was an intriguing meeting of proven 205-pounders, but Guskov has been on a solid run of late and will be looking to make his name off of a win over Ankalaev.Guskov was submitted by Volkan Oezdemir in his UFC debut, but bounced back with a four-fight winning streak that included a TKO of Ryan Spann and knockout of Nikita Krylov.Sign up for Paramount+ and watch UFC for no additional fee — every UFC numbered event and UFC Fight Night is included with your subscription! Plans start as low as $8.99/month or $89.99/year!
Those wins set Guskov up for the biggest fight of his career, a showdown with former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 323. Guskov nearly finished Blachowicz in the second round, scoring a crushing knockdown in the frame, but Blachowicz stormed back in the third round, resulting in a draw.
Magomed Ankalaev was urged to pull out of Alex Pereira rematch with injury: ‘Have to pay for your mistakes’
Shakiel Mahjouri
Guskov and Blachowicz were set for a rematch on Aug. 1, but Guskov’s call to save Saturday’s main event scrapped that idea. It is good news for Guskov that he was already in training camp and his timeline only shifted by a week, so he should be ready to fight.Ankalaev has been out of action since last October, when he lost the light heavyweight title in his rematch with Alex Pereira at UFC 320. That night, Ankalaev was stopped in just 80 seconds, a much different result than his title-winning performance in the first Pereira fight, where Ankalaev largely dominated the action.
The loss to Pereira snapped a 13-fight unbeaten streak for Ankalaev that began after he lost his first UFC bout.Saturday’s card has some familiar faces fans will be interested in checking…
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2026-07-25 14:00:46
