The first UFC event of 2025 takes place this weekend at The Apex in Las Vegas, headlined by strawweight contenders Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Ribas.
Unfortunately, the promotion has just confirmed that two of the scheduled fights on that card have fallen through – thankfully two replacement fighters have already been found.
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Updates for the first UFC event of 2025: Mackenzie Dern vs Amanda Ribas 2
The UFC's festive break is almost over, with 14 fights currently scheduled for the first official Fight Night event of 2025, headlined by popular strawweight contenders Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Ribas.
As confirmed by the UFC just a few minutes ago, two fights have unfortunately fallen through.
Yanal Ashmouz's lightweight fight against Nurullo Aliev has been canceled (Ashmouz withdrew), as has Andreas Gustafsson's welterweight fight against Preston Parsons (Gustafsson withdrew).
Fortunately, both Aliev and Parsons remain on the card, as late replacements have already been found.
Ashmouz will be replaced by Dana White's Contender Series alumni Joe Solecki, while Gustafsson will be replaced by undefeated American Jacobe Smith.
Solecki may be coming off back-to-back UFC losses to Drakkar Klose and Grant Dawson, but has remained active in the wrestling world, scoring a smooth first-round victory at Fury Pro Grappling 11 in November.
Smith is 9-0 as a professional and could be a future star in the making, with seven of those nine wins coming via KO/TKO, including six in the very first round.
With these two alternate fights confirmed, UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Ribas 2 is taking shape with 14 fights scheduled – including a six-fight main card.
- Mackenzie Dern vs. Amanda Ribas
- Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Carlston Harris
- Cesar Almeida vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan
- Chris Curtis vs. Roman Kopylov
- Christian Rodriguez vs. Austin Bashi
- Punahele Soriano vs. Uros Medic
The preliminaries will feature the following athletes and fights.
- Jose Johnson vs. Felipe Bunes
- Marco Tulio vs. Ihor Potieria
- Thiago Moises vs. Trey Ogden
- Preston Parsons vs. Jacobe Smith
- Ernesta Kareckaite vs. Nicolle Caliari
- Magomed Gajiasulov vs. Bruno Lopes
- Fatima Kline vs. Viktoriia Dudakova
- Nurullo Aliev vs. Joe Solecki
The event is scheduled for Saturday, January 11, so we can start 2025 with a bang.
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