UFC Fight Night 173 - Brunson vs. Shahbazyan --- UFC 252 - Miocic vs. Cormier 3
UFC Fight Night 174: Lewis vs. Oleinik is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on August 8, 2020 at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
Fight card
Main card (ESPN+)
Heavyweight Derrick Lewis vs. Aleksei Oleinik
Middleweight Chris Weidman vs. Omari Akhmedov
Middleweight Darren Stewart vs. Maki Pitolo
Women's Bantamweight Yana Kunitskaya vs. Julija Stoliarenko
Lightweight Beneil Dariush vs. Scott Holtzman
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Welterweight Tim Means vs. Laureano Staropoli
Lightweight Nasrat Haqparast vs. Alexander Muñoz
Middleweight Andrew Sanchez vs. Wellington Turman
Featherweight Gavin Tucker vs. Justin Jaynes
Featherweight Youssef Zalal vs. Peter Barrett
Bantamweight Irwin Rivera vs. Ali Al Qaisi
Middleweight Kevin Holland vs. Joaquin Buckley
Background
A heavyweight bout between former UFC Heavyweight Championship challenger Derrick Lewis and Aleksei Oleinik has been slated to serve as the event headliner.
A women's bantamweight bout between former UFC Women's Flyweight Champion Nicco Montaño and Julia Avila was originally scheduled for the event. However, due to Montano's coach John Wood testing positive for COVID-19, the bout was rescheduled for UFC Fight Night 177.
A women's bantamweight bout between Ketlen Vieira and former Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion and UFC Women's Featherweight Championship challenger Yana Kunitskaya was originally scheduled for a week earlier at UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Shahbazyan. However, it eventually moved to this event instead. Subsequently, Vieira was removed from the card on July 30 due to visa issues and was replaced by returning veteran and the current Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion Julija Stoliarenko. Vieira is expected to face a different opponent at UFC Fight Night 178 on September 12.
A heavyweight bout between Sergei Pavlovich and Ciryl Gane was expected to take place at this event. However, Pavlovich pulled out on July 15 due to an old knee injury that requires surgery. He was replaced by Shamil Abdurakhimov and the bout moved to UFC 253. Gane and Abdurakhimov were originally scheduled for UFC 249, but Gane was forced to pull out of the event after he was struck by a pneumothorax in training. Subsequently, the bout would be rescheduled for UFC 251. However, it was then cancelled a second time as Abdurakhimov was removed from the card for undisclosed reasons.
A featherweight bout between Steve Garcia and Peter Barrett was scheduled for the event. However, Garcia withdrew from the bout for an undisclosed reason on July 25 and was replaced by Youssef Zalal.
Maybe not the best, but its up there. These events that might look weak on paper often turn out to have really exiting fights with cool finishes. Why? I suspect it has to do with less known fighters, or fighters that lost some fights, turn it up and really perform their best. Fighters fight their best when they have something to prove.