The UFC Fight Night 217 tournament will take place on 14 January 2023 at the UFC APEX Arena in Las Vegas, USA. The main event will feature a middleweight bout between French fighter of Russian origin Nassourdine Imavov and American Kelvin Gastelum.
Gastelum and Imavov were originally scheduled to meet this April at UFC 273, but problems with Imavov’s visa forced the fight to be cancelled.
Imavov, the main training partner of former UFC interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane, has won three straight fights. After defeating Heinisch in July, the 25-year-old Dagestan-born, France-based fighter claimed a second-round technical knockout victory over another promising fighter, Edmen Shahbazyan, at UFC 268 in November. Most recently, he defeated Joaquin Buckley at UFC Fight Night 209 earlier this month.
Ever since Israel Adesanya defeated 31-year-old Gastelum in a fight for the interim middleweight title at UFC Fight Night 2019 at UFC 236, Gastelum has been fighting hard. His only win in his last six fights was against Ian Heinisch at UFC 258 before suffering a string of defeats, including to former champion Robert Whittaker and main challenger Jared Cannonier.
| Nassourdine Imavov | Middleweight | Kelvin Gastelum |
|---|---|---|
| The Sniper | Nickname | N/A |
| 12-3-0 | Record | 17-8-0 |
| 6′ 3″ | Height | 5′ 9″ |
| 186 lbs | Weight | 186 lbs |
| 75″ | Reach | 71″ |
| MMA Factory | Team | Fight Ready |
| France | Country | United States |
UFC Fight Night: Imavov vs. Gastelum Start Time
- Date: January 14, 2023
- Start time: 9 pm ET / 2 am GMT
- Prelims: 10 pm GMT / 3 pm PT / 5 pm CT / 6 pm ET
- Main card: 12 am GMT / 5 pm PT / 7 pm CT / 8 pm ET
Main card
- Nassourdine Imavov vs. Kelvin Gastelum; Middleweight
- Dan Ige vs. Damon Jackson; Featherweight
- Punahele Soriano vs. Roman Kopylov; Middleweight
- Ketlen Vieira vs. Raquel Pennington; Bantamweight
- Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Raoni Barcelos; Bantamweight
Prelims
- Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Claudio Ribeiro; Middleweight
- Mateusz Rębecki vs. Nick Fiore; Lightweight
- Mateus Mendonça vs. Javid Basharat; Bantamweight
- Allan Nascimento vs. Carlos Hernandez; Flyweight
- Daniel Argueta vs. Isaac Dulgarian; Featherweight
- Jimmy Flick vs. Charles Johnson; Flyweight
- Priscila Cachoeira vs. Sijara Eubanks; Flyweight
Imavov vs. Gastelum Live Stream and TV Channel
Both the preliminary and main events at UFC Fight Night will be streamed on ESPN+.
In the United Kingdom, BT Sport will telecast the event live, and the bouts will also be available to watch on the network’s mobile app and online streaming service.
