[autotag]Nathaniel Wood[/autotag] won’t be fighting [autotag]Umar Nurmagomedov[/autotag] on July 25 – but he’ll still be fighting.
Expected to fill in for Nurmagomedov to fight Wood (16-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC) is a former Combate Americas bantamweight champion, [autotag]John Castaneda[/autotag] (17-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC). The event will take place on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi as the fourth event the promotion will hold in 15 days.
Multiple people with knowledge of the situation informed MMA Junkie of the targeted booking Thursday but asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Castaneda will make his long-awaited UFC debut 22 fights into his professional career. From May 2015 to November 2017, Castaneda won 11 straight fights. He also competed on Dana White’s Contender Series, Season 1, defeating Cheyden Leialoha by unanimous decision. He is 1-2 in his most recent three bouts.
Conversely, Wood will look to rebound from his first UFC loss. After defeating Johnny Eduardo, Andre Ewell and Jose Quinonez in succession to kick off his promotional tenure, Wood was finished via strikes by John Dodson in February.
With the changes, the current July 25 lineup includes:
- Darren Till vs. Robert Whittaker
- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio Rua
- Alex Oliviera vs. Peter Sobotta
- Alexander Gustafsson vs. Fabricio Werdum
- Carla Esparza vs. Marina Rodriguez
- Nicholas Dalby vs. Jesse Ronson
- Tom Aspinall vs. Jake Collier
- Raphael Pessoa vs. Justin Tafa
- Movsar Evloev vs. Mike Grundy
- Bethe Correia vs. Pannie Kianzad
- John Castaneda vs. Nathaniel Wood
- Ramazan Emeev vs. Niklas Stolze
- Jai Herbert vs. Francisco Trinaldo
- Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs. Paul Craig
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