Rodolfo Vieira will remain on UFC Fight Night 251 after all.
Vieira (10-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) was originally scheduled to face Jacob Malkoun at the event on Feb. 15 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, but was forced out due to injury.
The BJJ specialist Vieira will get to keep the date and face a new opponent in Andre Petroski, who announced the news Tuesday on Instagram.
Petroski (12-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC), coincidentally, started his 2024 with a loss to Malkoun in March. However, he rebounded nicely with a win over Josh Fremd in July, and made it back-to-back with a unanimous decision win over Dylan Budka in September.
Vieira also comes in as a winner of two straight. Following a submission loss to Chris Curtis in June 2022, Vieira got back to his grappling excellence and pulled of consecutive arm triangle choke victories over Cody Brundage and Armen Petrosyan.
With the change, the UFC Fight Night 251 lineup includes:
- Jared Cannonier vs. Gregory Rodrigues
- Edson Barboza vs. Steve Garcia
- Carli Judice vs. Juliana Miller
- Rodolfo Vieira vs. Andre Petroski
- Ismael Bonfim vs. Nazim Sadykhov
- Gabriel Bonfim vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov
- Jose Delgado vs. Connor Matthews
- Billy Ray Goff vs. Nikolay Veretennikov
- Dylan Budka vs. Edmen Shahbazyan
- Vince Morales vs. Elijah Smith
- Jesus Aguilar vs. Rafael Estevam
- Don’Tale Mayes vs. Valter Walker
- Kaue Fernandes vs. Jared Gordon
