This weekend’s UFC Vegas 87 card sees a pair of late replacements, as AJ Cunningham steps in on a short notice to fight Ludovit Klein. The Dana White’s Contender Series alumni replaces Joel Alvarez in the lightweight bout at UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs Gaziev. The MMA event airs live from UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday, March 2.
In another change, Bernardo Sopaj makes his UFC debut on a short notice against Vinicius Oliveira. The Sweden-based Albanian bantamweight replaces Yanis Ghemmouri.
After being stopped in the second round by Steven Nguyen at DWCS last September, AJ Cunningham (11-3) of the U.S. returned to the win column with the first round TKO against Justice Lamperez in late 2023.
Sopaj (11-2) won his previous bout in December 2023 by submission in the first round against Geovane Vargas.
The changes on the card were first reported by MMA Junkie.
The current UFC Vegas 87 lineup looks as the following:
Main card
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev, heavyweight
- Vitor Petrino vs. Tyson Pedro, light heavyweight
- Alex Perez vs. Muhammad Mokaev, flyweight
- Eryk Anders vs. Jamie Pickett, middleweight
- Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Bekzat Almakhan, bantamweight
- Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios, bantamweight
- Matt Schnell vs. Steve Erceg, flyweight
Preliminary card
- Aiemann Zahabi vs. Javid Basharat, bantamweight
- Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Claudio Ribeiro, middleweight
- Vinicius Oliveira vs. Bernardo Sopaj, bantamweight
- Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady vs. Loik Radzhabov, lightweight
- AJ Cunningham vs. Ludovit Klein, lightweight