With Aleksei Oleinik out of his UFC 270 bout against Greg Hardy, another formidable Eastern European heavyweight has taken his place.
In place of Oleinik, Hardy will now face Moldovan heavyweight Sergei Spivak. “The Polar Bear” switching spots with “The Boa Constrictor” was first reported by Ariel Helwani.
Spivak (13-3) recently saw a three-fight winning streak snapped when he was finished by England’s Tom Aspinall back in September. Prior to that setback, the 26-year old had secured wins against Carlos Felipe, Jared Vanderaa, and Aleksei Oleinik — coincidentally the man he is now replacing.
Hardy (7-4, 1NC), the infamous former NFL star, is one the first losing streak of his fighting career. “The Prince of War” has lost back-to-back fights against Marcin Tybura and Tai Tuivasa, having been finished in both.
That means Hardy’s MMA experiment could be on life support.
The UFC 270 card takes place on Saturday, January 22 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The card currently breaks down as follows:
Francis Ngannou (c) vs. Ciryl Gane (ic) – for the UFC heavyweight championship
Brandon Moreno (c) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo – for the UFC flyweight championship
Cody Stamann vs. Said Nurmagomedov
Rodolfo Vieira vs. Wellington Turman
Tony Gravely vs. Saimon Oliveira
Raoni Barcelos vs. Victor Henry
Matt Frevola vs. Genaro Valdez
Trevin Giles vs. Michael Morales
Kay Hansen vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius
TBA vs. Jack Della Maddalena
Michel Pereira vs. Andre Fialho
Silvana Gomez Juarez vs. Vanessa Demopoulos
Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Jourdain
Greg Hardy vs. Sergey Spivak
