Strickland Replaces Gastelum, Meets Imavov in New UFC Fight Night 217 Main Event

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event of 2023 has undergone a late change to its headliner.

According to promotion broadcast partner ESPN, Kelvin Gastelum has been forced to withdraw from his UFC fight Night 217 showdown against Nassourdine Imavov due to a mouth injury, and as a result, will be replaced by Sean Strickland on less than one week’s notice. Strickland will be headlining back-to-back UFC cards after dropping a unanimous decision to Jared Cannonier in the promotion’s last event of 2022 on Dec. 17. While both men typically compete at 185 pounds, Strickland vs. Imavov will be contested at 205 pounds but will remain a five-round bout.

UFC Fight Night 217 takes place on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It’s the second significant blow for the card, as a proposed co-main event clash between Geoff Neal and Shavkat Rakhmonov was scrapped due to a Neal injury. That bout has since been rescheduled for UFC 285.

After authoring a six-bout Octagon winning streak from October 2018 to February 2022, Strickland has dropped back-to-back contests against Alex Pereira and Cannonier. The former King of the Cage title holder is 12-5 in UFC competition overall and owns notable victories against the likes of Jack Hermansson, Uriah Hall, Brendan Allen, Court McGee and Tom Breese.

Imavov, meanwhile, has emerged as an intriguing prospect at middleweight after winning four of his first five promotional appearances. In his lone appearance of 2022, the Paris native outpointed Joaquin Buckley at UFC Fight Night 209 this past September.