Just days out from the event, and days after he was supposed to face Douglas Silva de Andrade at UFC Vegas 103, John Castaneda has a new fight.
Castaneda (21-7) is stepping in to replace Jean Matsumoto at UFC 313, where he’ll take on Chris Gutierrez (21-6-2) at featherweight. Matsumoto was pulled from the fight to replace Dominick Cruz at UFC Seattle, leaving Gutierrez in need of a new opponent.
With the Seattle card the week before UFC Vegas 103, and Silva de Andrade pulled from the fight with Castaneda due to medical reasons, the timing simply worked out.
Eurosport was first to report news of the switch. Castaneda later confirmed the pairing on his Instagram Story.
Gutierrez has been trading wins and losses his last four fights, and is coming off a victory over Quang Le last August. In 2022, the Factory X product was riding high off a win over former lightweight champ and Hall of Famer Frankie “The Answer” Edgar, a win that capped off an eight-fight unbeaten streak. He’s 2-2 since, coming up short against Pedro Munhoz and Song Yadong while beating Le and Alateng Heili.
John Castaneda saw a two-fight win streak snapped when he dropped a decision to Daniel Marcos last June.
UFC 313 is set for the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada this Saturday, March 8, 2025. The full line-up now looks as follows:
- Alex Pereira (c) vs. Magomed Ankalaev – for the UFC light heavyweight championship
- Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev
- Jalin Turner vs. Ignacio Bahamondes
- Amanda Lemos vs. Iasmin Lucindo
- King Green vs. Maurício Ruffy
- Curtis Blaydes vs. Rizvan Kuniev
- Joshua Van vs. Rei Tsuruya
- Brunno Ferreira vs. Armen Petrosyan
- Alex Morono vs. Carlos Leal
- Mairon Santos vs. Francis Marshall
- Chris Gutiérrez vs. John Castañeda
- Djorden Ribeiro dos Santos vs. Osman Diaz
