Ankalaev vs. Guskov booked for UFC Abu Dhabi after Rountree pulls out injured

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Khalil Rountree Jr. is off the UFC Abu Dhabi main event with an injury, and Bogdan Guskov is in. The promotion confirmed the swap on Monday, giving Magomed Ankalaev a new opponent 12 days out from the July 25 card at Etihad Arena.

Guskov, the No. 10-ranked light heavyweight, was already booked. He was scheduled to rematch Jan Blachowicz at UFC Belgrade on August 1 before the call came to move up a week, a card, and several tax brackets of exposure. He accepted. Blachowicz did not.

The replacement math is worth walking through. Per theScore and social-media confirmations from Blachowicz himself, the UFC offered him the Ankalaev fight first. He hesitated initially on the weight cut given the one-week acceleration from his original date. “UFC offered me to fight Ankalaev first. I wasn’t sure if I’m gonna make the weight,” Blachowicz wrote on X. “After a couple of hours, I confirmed the fight without any catchweight, but it was a done deal with Guskov. So now I’m waiting for a new opponent.” Paulo Costa was also contacted, per Ariel Helwani on Uncrowned, and declined for various reasons.

Ankalaev, the No. 1-ranked light heavyweight, is coming off the sort of night fighters do not put in their highlight reels. He lost the title back to Alex Pereira at UFC 320 on October 4, 2025, stopped by punches and elbows at 1:20 of round one. That was his most recent appearance. Prior to it, he had run a long unbeaten stretch through the division, including the unanimous decision over Pereira in their first meeting at UFC 313 in March 2025 that put the belt on his shoulder in the first place. Pereira has since vacated the light heavyweight title to move to heavyweight, where he lost to Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250 in June. The 205-pound title picture is officially in flux, and Ankalaev’s return is designed, in part, to sort that out.

“I was supposed to fight Khalil Rountree at UFC Abu Dhabi, but unfortunately he’s injured,” Ankalaev wrote on X. “I wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back soon. Now I’m fighting Bogdan. Like I’ve said before, I’ll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime. It doesn’t matter. I’m always ready.”

Guskov brings an 18-3-1 record and a UFC run that includes back-to-back stoppages of Nikita Krylov, Billy Elekana, and Ryan Spann across 2024 and 2025, plus the December majority draw with Blachowicz at UFC 323. He has not lost since a decision defeat to Volkan Oezdemir in his UFC debut in 2023. He also carries a stat the UFC’s own announcement leaned into hard. Eighteen wins, eighteen finishes, thirteen of them in the first round. A 100 percent finish rate across a 22-fight professional career is uncommon at any division. It is rare at 205 pounds.

He has not fought a top-five light heavyweight before. He gets one now, on 12 days’ notice, in a five-round main event.

The stylistic gap is the interesting part. Ankalaev built his case for the belt on grappling control, positional patience, and the kind of pressure that grinds cardio out of opponents by the championship rounds. Guskov is a striker who prefers to trade, and whose UFC finishes have almost all come off clean counter power inside two minutes. The 12-day preparation window compresses the technical adjustments both corners can realistically make. On a full camp, Ankalaev would be a straightforward favourite to drag Guskov into deep water and finish him from top position. On 12 days, the questions get sharper.

The co-main event is Steve Erceg against Ramazan Temirov at flyweight. Santiago Ponzinibbio versus Sam Patterson at welterweight has also been added to the card since the change. The rest of the lineup fills out across middleweight, heavyweight, and lightweight prospects with Dagestani, Russian, and Uzbek fighters headlining the regional promotional pitch.

For Ankalaev, the assignment is a return-to-form booking against a lower-ranked opponent while the title picture sorts itself out. For Guskov, it is the kind of opportunity that does not get turned down. A win over a former champion who was fighting for gold nine months ago is worth years of steady booking. A loss on short notice, at a weight class he was already preparing for but against a level he was not preparing for specifically, is a footnote rather than a career setback.

The ripple effect hits UFC Belgrade hardest. The Blachowicz-Guskov rematch had already been rebooked twice, first postponed from UFC 328 due to a Blachowicz injury, then rescheduled to Belgrade. Now it is off entirely, with Blachowicz publicly asking the matchmakers for a new opponent and a card that had been built around the rematch narrative needing a new headliner. The August 1 date at Štark Arena in Belgrade is now in matchmaking triage.

Ankalaev-Guskov on July 25 is the main event. Whether the fight resembles Ankalaev’s title-loss tape from UFC 320, in which he was caught early and finished, or grinds through five rounds the way most of his career has, is the thing to watch. Guskov has 12 days to prepare an answer.