UFC 260 has added another heavyweight match-up to the fight card.
First reported by WP SportoweFakty, top 15 ranked heavyweights Marcin Tybura and Blagoy Ivanov will fight in March on the fourth pay-per-view of the year, UFC 260 — which is headlined by a heavyweight title fight. Cageside Press confirmed the bout with sources close to the situation Thursday. The UFC has not officially announced the match-up.
Tybura (21-6) had an excellent year in 2020. He went 4-0, capping off his year with a Performance of the Night bonus. Tybura kicked off his year in February by defeating Sergey Spivak via a unanimous decision. He snapped Maxim Grishin’s nine-fight winning streak dating back to 2017 in his next fight. The Polish fighter would return three months later to defeat Ben Rothwell via a unanimous decision. Tybura would end his year by being the first man to finish Greg Hardy and did so by TKO. Tybura will be looking to keep his No. 15 ranking, and inch closer to the top 10.
Bulgaria’s Ivanov could easily be on a four-fight winning streak had it not been for two close split decisions to end 2019 and in his most recent loss. Ivanov only fought once in 2020. His only fight was against Augusto Sakai in the co-main event of UFC on ESPN: Woodley vs. Burns — the first pandemic-era event held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He lost via split decision, however, a fence grab by Sakai might have changed the trajectory of the result. Nevertheless, Ivanov is looking to break his two-fight skid.
UFC 260 looks like this so far:
- Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou
- Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega
- Marcin Tybura vs. Blagoy Ivanov
- Modestas Bukauskas vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk
- Hannah Goldy vs. Jessica Penne
- Vicente Luque vs. Tyron Woodley
- Thomas Almeida vs. Sean O’Malley
