Bryce Mitchell has received a UFC-ranked replacement to fill in for the injured Jonathan Pearce.
Russia’s Movsar Evloev (16-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) has stepped in on three weeks’ notice to fight Mitchell (15-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) on the UFC 288 pay-per-view main card. The event takes place May 6 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
The promotion officially announced the bout during Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 44 broadcast.
The pair of top UFC featherweights were originally scheduled to fight one another in November, but Evloev withdrew due to injury.
Mitchell, 28, will look to rebound from his first UFC loss, a second-round submission defeat to Ilia Topuria at UFC 282 in December.
Evloev, 29, is undefeated as a professional with notable victories over the likes of Dan Ige, Hakeem Dawodu, and Enrique Barzola among others.
With the change, the UFC 288 lineup includes:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET)
- Aljamain Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo
- Jessica Andrade vs. Yan Xiaonan
- Drew Dober vs. Matt Frevola
- Bryce Mitchell vs. Movsar Evloev
- Kron Gracie vs. Charles Jourdain
- Rolando Bedoya vs. Khaos Williams
- Johnny Munoz vs. Daniel Santos
- Virna Jandiroba vs. Marina Rodriguez
- Armen Petrosyan vs. TBA
- Devin Clark vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu
- Rafael Estevam vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
- Joseph Holmes vs. Claudio Ribeiro
- Ikram Aliskerov vs. Phil Hawes
- Parker Porter vs. Braxton Smith
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 288.
