It appears the UFC’s first event in Russia has its headliner.
Heavyweight Aleksei Oleinik (56-11-1 MMA, 5-2 UFC) will get a home fight against former champion Fabricio Werdum (23-8-1 MMA, 11-5 UFC), according to a report from MMAfighting.com. UFC officials have not yet made a formal announcement of the booking, though Oleinik overnight said he had signed his contract for the event.
This past week, UFC officials confirmed the promotion’s Russia debut is set for Sept. 15 at Olympic Stadium. Broadcast plans for the event, which is likely to be UFC Fight Night 136, haven’t been set.
Oleinik, a 40-year-old Ukrainian-Russian submission specialist, recently scored a submission victory over Júnior Albini at UFC 224. After the victory, in which he scored just the second Ezekiel-choke win in UFC history (he also notched the first, against Viktor Pesta in 2017), Oleinik called for a fight with former champion Werdum, who’s No. 6 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA heavyweight rankings.
Werdum is coming off a knockout loss to Alexander Volkov in March’s UFC Fight Night 127 headliner. Prior to that, he had three wins in four fights since losing the heavyweight title to Stipe Miocic: decisions over Travis Browne and Marcin Tybura, and a submission of Walt Harris.