Only hours before they’re set to compete, Ray Rodriguez has been set to face Brian Kelleher on Saturday night. The matchup sees Rodriguez replace Kevin Natividad, who withdrew from what was set to be his UFC debut.
News of the opponent switch for Kelleher was first reported by Mike Heck and Damon Martin of MMA Fighting.
Rodriguez has fought at a high regional level of MMA for a few years, with previous fights taking place in Combate Americas and LFA. He competed in the 2019 season of “Dana White’s Contender Series,” although he lost in the third round to Tony Gravely.
Kelleher will look to bounce back from a June loss to Cody Stamann in the fight.
UFC’s ever-changing card is set to go down this evening. Here’s it’s current form.
Main Card (8:00PM EDT / 5:00PM PDT)
Bout 8: Alistair Overeem (46-18) vs. Augusto Sakai (15-1-1) (Heavyweight)
Bout 7: Ovince St. Preux (24-14) vs. Alonzo Menifield (9-1) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 6: Michel Pereira (23-11) vs. Zelim Imadaev (8-2) (Welterweight)
Bout 5: Brian Kelleher (21-11) vs. Ray Rodriguez (16-6) (Featherweight)
Preliminary Card (6:00PM EDT / 3:00PM PDT)
Bout 4: Montana De La Rosa (11-5) vs. Viviane Araujo (8-2) (Flyweight)
Bout 3: Bartosz Fabinski (15-3) vs. Andre Muniz (19-4) (Middleweight)
Bout 2: Marcos Rogerio de Lima (17-6-1) vs. Alexander Romanov (11-0) (Heavyweight)
Bout 1: Cole Smith (7-1) vs. Hunter Azure (8-1) (Bantamweight)
Knockdown News 