News Yousri Belgaroui vs Azamat Bekoev rescheduled for UFC Vancouver on October 18

[BoxerMaurits]

Not officially announced yet, but I’ve been able to confirm that Yousri Belgaroui will make his UFC debut next week against Azamat Bekoev, stepping in for Torrez Finney.

It’ll be at Middleweight, tough cut on short notice.


UPDATE:

Official




UPDATE 2:

Rescheduled for UFC Vancouver on October 18

 

[TCE]

A much more intriguing fight, imo.

 

[TCE]

You beat me to it, bro haha.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Wow, that's cool. Much cooler fight, Finney prolongs his UFC career there as I think he was getting corpsed and cut.

Going for Bekoev by submission.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Now also officially announced:

 

[KDR by RNC]

Finney didnt want that schmoke

 

[BoxerMaurits]

 

[Koala]

Bekoev prepared for a short wrestler and is now fighting a tall striker

 

[Thesnake101]

Bekoev prepared for a short wrestler and is now fighting a tall striker

Thankfully Yousri has no wrestling so Bekoev can just double leg and maul him.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

He looked mid against Taiga Iwasaki and Bekoev might look like an alright matchup on paper, but a tough cut and short camp usually don't go well together.
Bekoev by sub relatively early.

 

[Siver!]

Azamat needs to fight someone with more wins I'm his next fight.

They're treating him like he's 10-3, not 20-3.

 

[Dr. Rose]

 

[Safton]

Lucky turn of fate for Finney. I don't think he was making it out of this one and I had a sneaking suspicion the UFC was gonna pull a Karl Williams/Josefine Knutsson by sending him packing the moment he took a loss lol.

I think Bekoev is a way better fighter than Belgaroui, who did not overly impress me on DWCS and is lacking in MMA experience. Bekoev has the tools to win this by pressuring early, mixing things up, making it dirty, and forcing the kickboxer to worry about his grappling. That said, talk about training camp whiplash. Bekoev just spent months preparing to sprawl-n-brawl a short, stocky musclebound wrestler who is coming to take him down and smother him. Now he has to totally shift gears and get ready to implement his own offensive wrestling against a towering, lanky kickboxer lmao. He'll probably pull it off given Belgaroui's lack of experience and short camp (with a potentially rough weight cut), but still.

 

[Ares Black]

Bekoev dodged the Finney train. Lucky guy.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

(with a potentially rough weight cut).

Definitely going to be a tough cut. Yousri’s a huge Middleweight, hasn’t made 185 in two years, and he’s been fighting at LHW ever since.

 

[payton]

Give him the Pereira treatment .

 

[theincognito]

Azamat needs to fight someone with more wins I'm his next fight.

They're treating him like he's 10-3, not 20-3.

I feel like his first two were on quite short notice. Could be wrong but that would explain it.

As for the Finney matchmaking, they clearly wanted Finney destroyed so they could cut him after his last performance was so trash.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Thankfully Yousri has no wrestling so Bekoev can just double leg and maul him.

Yep, it's probably an easier fight in some ways for Bekoev. Belgaroui hasn't looked particularly good at any aspect of MMA, Finney is at least a strong as fuck brick shithouse with takedowns, even if he's boring as hell. I think Bekoev makes it look quite easy.

 

[Khaosan]

I wasn’t impressed with him at all both times on DWCS..

 

[World eater]

Welcome to the UFC, here’s a russian grappler to maul you into bolivia after a tough weight cut. I’m not even mad.