Paulo Costa out, Kelvin Gastelum steps in vs. Jared Cannonier in UFC main event

Kelvin Gastelum will as soon as again step in as a main event exchange.

With Paulo Costa out of his upcoming middleweight UFC Strive against Night headliner with Jared Cannonier (13-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) on Aug. 21, Gastelum (16-7 MMA, 11-7 UFC) has agreed to step in and interact the 5-spherical battle.

MMA Junkie verified the swap with a person shut to the mission following an initial narrative from ESPN.com. The person requested anonymity for the reason that UFC has yet to construct an reliable announcement.

UFC Strive against Night on Aug. 21 doesn’t contain an introduced location or venue.

Gastelum is coming off a main event loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC on ESPN 22 in April, where he also changed Costa, who withdrew due to illness. “The Closing Fighter” winner is 1-4 in his past 5 fights.

Cannonier, meanwhile, is coming off a loss of his contain to Whittaker at UFC 254 in October. He suffered an arm injury that required surgical plot and has been out of motion since.

The reason behind Costa’s (14-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) withdrawal from the matchup is undisclosed today.

With the exchange, the UFC Strive against Night lineup now includes:

• Jared Cannonier vs. Kelvin Gastelum
• Mana Martinez vs. Jesse Strader
• Fabio Cherant vs. William Knight
• Austin Hubbard vs. Vinc Pichel
• Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval
• Austin Lingo vs. Luis Saldana
• Parker Porter vs. Inch Sherman
• Brian Kelleher vs. Domingo Pilarte
• Clay Guida vs. Designate Madsen
• Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Sasha Palatnikov
• Bea Malecki vs. Josiane Nunes