After a fight with Mike Davis fell through, Jai Herbert now has a new opponent for UFC London next month.
On Thursday, Eurosport was first to report that Herbert will face Ilia Topuria at the Fight Night event. For Topuria, it will be a debut in a new weight class, with the featherweight moving up a division for the March 19 event.
Herbert later confirmed the pairing on social media.
Jai Herbert (11-3) joined the UFC in 2020, losing his first two outings before finishing Khama Worthy last October. “The Black Country Banger” found the TKO win just over halfway into the first round.
Prior to joining the UFC, Jai Herbert had reigned as lightweight champ in U.K. promotion Cage Warriors.
Topuria (11-0) has been perfect thus far in his professional career. The Georgian, born in Germany, is 3-0 in the octagon to date, most recently picking up a win over submission wizard Ryan Hall.
Last month, Ilia Topuria had been scheduled to face Movsar Evloev at UFC 270. A series of unfortunate events tanked the bout, however: first, Evloev pulled out, and was replaced by Charles Jourdain. Topuria was then pulled from the card after falling ill while cutting weight.
UFC London is set to take place on March 19, 2022 at the O2 Arena in London, England. A heavyweight showdown between Alexander Volkov and England’s own Tom Aspinall headlines the event. Thus far, the following bouts are in place for the show:
- Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall
- Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev
- Jake Hadley vs. Allan Nascimento
- Luana Carolina vs. Molly McCann
- Muhammad Mokaev vs Cody Durden
- Makwan Amirkhani vs. Mike Grundy
- Sergei Pavlovich vs. Shamil Abdurakhimov
- Arnold Allen vs. Dan Hooker
- Gunnar Nelson vs. Cláudio Silva
- Cory McKenna vs. Elise Reed
- Nathaniel Wood vs. Liudvik Sholinian
- Paddy Pimblett vs. Rodrigo Vargas
- Nikita Krylov vs. Paul Craig
- Jai Herbert vs. Ilia Topuria
