While MMA‘s top promotion, the UFC, will be off this week due to the observance of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend inside the United States, there’s been an adjustment made to next weekend’s card, UFC 310. T-Mobile Arena will play host to the Dec. 7 show, albeit with a change to the itinerary.
Initially, the early prelims were slated to open with a heavyweight contest matching Tallison Teixeira (7-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and Lukasz Brzeski (9-5-1, 1 NC MMA, 1-4 UFC) in what was supposed to have been the UFC debut for the former. Teixeira appeared on the Sept. 17 episode of Dana White’s Contender Series, winning a promotional contract from UFC CEO Dana White at the end of the evening.
While Brzeski will still make the walk one week from Saturday night in Vegas, Wednesday, the UFC announced a new opponent for him in the other corner.
Kennedy Nzechukwu to Kick Off UFC 310 Next Weekend Against Lukasz Brzeski
With Teixeira now off UFC 310 due to injury, Kennedy Nzechukwu (13-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC) a two-time veteran of Contender Series, securing his place on the promotion’s active roster during the 2018 season of the program, will verse Lukasz Brzeski. At present, this fight is slated to be the first fight on the early prelims.
As per the terms on the contract, it’ll be a three-round fight at five minutes per round to begin the evening’s activities. Poland’s In The Cage broke the news of the change in the bout order earlier Wednesday.
https://twitter.com/InTheCagePL/status/1859543041863794949/
Other Alterations to UFC 310
Subsequent to the announcement of Nzechukwu entering UFC 310 on 10 days’ notice to replace Teixeira, the UFC also revealed that next weekend’s heavyweight bout pitting Martin Buday (14-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC), a veteran of Oktagon MMA in the Czech Republic, against 16-fight veteran Rizvan Kuniev (13-2-1, 1 NC MMA, 0-0 UFC), himself a two-time veteran of Contender Series, would no longer be going ahead due to the former sustaining an injury. No short-notice opponent for Kuniev was sought ahead of Buday’s withdrawal from next weekend’s card.
In addition, the co-featured prelim for UFC 310 will now be a welterweight contest featuring Vicente Luque (22-10-1 MMA, 15-6 UFC) and Themba Gorimbo (14-4 MMA, 4-1 UFC). The latter is substituting for Nick Diaz (26-10, 2 NC MMA, 7-7, 2 NC UFC), who is unable to make the walk due to injury.
Kennedy Nzechukwu Facing A Quick Turnaround Ahead of UFC 310 Next Saturday
Heading into this short-notice bout, Kennedy Nzechukwu has posted a record of 3-2 in his last five contests dating back to November of 2022. Back on Oct. 26, he snapped his two-fight losing streak by way of first-round knockout against Chris Barnett (23-9 MMA, 2-3 UFC) due to strikes during the UFC 308 prelims from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
By the time the cage door closes on Dec. 7, Nzechukwu will have only had 42 days between contests. How will the short hiatus of six weeks play into Kennedy Nzechukwu’s gameplan for his fight against Lukasz Brzeski next weekend?
Brzeski Looking to End 2024 on High Note
In the other corner, Lukas Brzeski will enter the new-look prelim to begin UFC 310 having gone 1-4 over his first five fights in the promotion. Back in July of this year during UFC 304’s undercard from Co-op Live in Manchester, he sustained a first-round knockout loss (punches) to Mick Parkin (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in the second prelim of the evening.
Brzeski hasn’t had a sustained unbeaten streak in MMA since he went 7-0-1 with one no-contest between September of 2018 and September of 2021. That no-contest occurred on his Contender Series appearance versus Dylan Potter during season five of the program.
Lukasz Brzeski was initially announced as the winner of the bout against Potter via third-round submission due to a rear-naked choke, only to see the result retroactively changed to a no-contest in the wake of his positive drug test. Since then, he’s only gotten his hand raised in victory once, earlier this year on April 6 over Valter Walker (12-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) in the latter’s UFC promotional debut.
