Anthony Birchak Takes Short-Notice Fight Against Gustavo Lopez on November 7th UFC Card

A bantamweight fight on Saturday’s UFC card has been saved, as Anthony Birchak has stepped in on short notice to fight Gustavo Lopez.

Amy Kaplan of Fansided was the first to report that Birchak would replace Felipe Colares, who was pulled from the card due to a positive COVID-19 test.

With a new opponent, Lopez re-joins the “Fight Night” card, which is scheduled to happen at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The fight sees the start of Birchak’s second run in the UFC. He previously competed in the promotion from 2014 to 2016, having a record of two wins and two losses in the time.

He has fought six times since his first UFC run, attaining a record of three wins and three losses.

The fight will be Lopez’s first since his UFC debut, which was a decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili in June. He was a Combate Americas Bantamweight Champion before his UFC debut.

Here’s the updated card for Saturday.

Bout 11: Thiago Santos (21-7) vs. Glover Teixeira (31-7) (Light Heavyweight)

Bout 10: Ian Heinisch (14-3) vs. Brendan Allen (15-3) (Middleweight)

Bout 9: Trevin Giles (12-2) vs. Bevon Lewis (7-2) (Middleweight)

Bout 8: Max Griffin (15-8) vs. Ramiz Brahimaj (8-2) (Welterweight)

Bout 7: Claudia Gadelha (18-4) vs. Yan Xiaonan (12-1) (Strawweight)

Bout 6: Darren Elkins (24-9) vs. Eduardo Garagorri (13-1) (Featherweight)

Bout 5: Andrei Arlovski (29-19) vs. Tanner Boser (19-6-1) (Heavyweight)

Bout 4: Marcos Rogerio de Lima (17-6-1) vs. Alexander Romanov (12-0) (Heavyweight)

Bout 3: Raoni Barcelos (15-1) vs. Khalid Taha (14-2) (Bantamweight)

Bout 2: Giga Chikadze (11-2) vs. Jamey Simmons (7-2) (Featherweight)

Bout 1: Gustavo Lopez (11-5) vs. Anthony Birchak (15-6) (Bantamweight)