Cage Warriors’ featherweight champion Nad Narimani has been handed a short-notice call-up for UFC-London.
German martial arts site gnp1.de first reported that Narimani (10-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) signed on to step in for the injured Alex Reyes against German lightweight Nasrat Haqparast (8-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) on the preliminary card of UFC Fight Night 127, which takes place on Saturday at The O2 Arena in London. UFC officials subsequently confirmed the change with MMAjunkie.
Narimani is currently riding a three-fight winning streak, with victories over Jeremy Petley, Daniel Requeijo and, most recently, in a title win over Paddy Pimblett at this past April’s Cage Warriors 82.
Narimani’s impressive performance to dethrone Pimblett in Liverpool saw him crowned Cage Warriors featherweight champion, but the English native hasn’t fought since that April 2017 contest.
Narimani now returns to action on an even bigger stage, following in the footsteps of a host of former Cage Warriors stars who have made the jump to the UFC including the likes of Conor McGregor, Michael Bisping, Dan Hardy, Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Brett Johns, among others.
The most recent Cage Warriors champion to step up to the UFC was Poland’s Oskar Piechota, who signed after capturing the Cage Warriors middleweight championship and has since picked up back-to-back wins in his first two octagon visits.
The UFC Fight Night 127 lineup now includes:
MAIN CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 5 p.m. ET)
- Fabricio Werdum vs. Alexander Volkov
- Jan Blachowicz vs. Jimi Manuwa
- Tom Duquesnoy vs. Terrion Ware
- Leon Edwards vs. Peter Sobotta
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 1:45 p.m. ET)
- Charles Byrd vs. John Phillips
- Oliver Enkamp vs. Danny Roberts
- Jack Marshman vs. Bradley Scott
- Hakeem Dawodu vs. Danny Henry
- Magomed Ankalaev vs. Paul Craig
- Kajan Johnson vs. Stevie Ray
- Nasrat Haqparast vs. Nad Narimani
- Mark Godbeer vs. Dmitriy Sosnovskiy
For more on UFC Fight Night 127, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
