Aleksei Oleinik still has a fight at UFC 273 — but it won’t come against original opponent Ilir Latifi.
With Latifi pulling out of the bout, Oleinik has now been matched up with Jared Vanderaa, per an updated fight card on UFC.com. No reason has been given for Latifi’s withdrawal, but he did drop out of the pair’s original date this past weekend at UFC Columbus due to illness.
Oleinik vs. Vanderaa will be part of a six-fight main card at the UFC 273 Pay-Per-View, which is topped by a featherweight title fight featuring Alexander Volkanovski defending his belt against The Korean Zombie.
Oleinik (59-16-1), at 44, is the oldest fighter currently featured on the UFC roster. He’ll be looking to snap a three-fight skid against the much younger, and vastly less experienced Vanderaa (12-7).
Vanderaa has come up short in his last two fights, most recently losing a split decision against former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. Oleinik, likewise, is coming off a decision loss to Sergey Spivak.
UFC 273 is set to take place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, April 9, 2022. The full card currently breaks down as follows:
- Alexander Volkanovski (c) vs. Chan Sung Jung – for the UFC featherweight championship
- Aljamain Sterling (c) vs. Petr Yan (ic) – for the UFC bantamweight championship / title unification bout
- Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev
- Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres
- Aleksei Oleinik vs. Jared Vanderaa
- Kelvin Gastelum vs. Dricus Du Plessis
- Aspen Ladd vs. Raquel Pennington
- Ian Garry vs. Darian Weeks
- Josh Fremd vs. Anthony Hernandez
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Marcin Tybura
- Mickey Gall vs. Mike Malott
- Julio Arce vs. Daniel Santos
- Mark Madsen vs. Vinc Pichel
- Kay Hansen vs. Piera Rodriguez
