UFC middleweight “Smiling” Sam Alvey is going to be a company man and step in on short notice to fight Ramazan Emeev at UFC Fight Night Poland.
Emeev was scheduled to face Trevor Smith, but fell out with only seven days left before fight time. Alvey last fought this past August where he earned a split-decision victory over former UFC light heavyweight champion, Rashad Evans.
“A little awestruck,” Alvey told MMAjunkie after defeating Evans in Mexico City. “I’d never experienced that before. But Rashad is one of those guys that, he’s fighting, I watch.”
“This was going to be that fight where people remember me forever, and I doodled a little bit,” Alvey said.
“Smiling Sam” also holds victories over some other top middleweights including Nate Marquardt, Alex Nicholson, Kevin Casey and Eric Spicely.
His opponent, Ramazan Emeev is a tough Russian prospect who’s been finishing a lot of opponents outside the UFC, and will be making his promotional debut. He’s currently riding a four-fight win streak which includes wins over Anatoly Tokov, Maiquel Falcao, Luigi Fioravanti and Vyacheslav Vasilevsky.
UFC Fight Night Poland takes place October 21st at Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland.
MAIN CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 3 p.m. ET)
Donald Cerrone vs. Darren Till
Jodie Esquibel vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Jan Blachowicz vs. Devin Clark
Oskar Piechota vs. Jonathan Wilson
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 11:45 a.m. ET)
Nasrat Haqparast vs. Marcin Held
Anthony Hamilton vs. Adam Wieczorek
Brian Kelleher vs. Damian Stasiak
Sam Alvey vs. Ramazan Emeev
Andre Fili vs. Artem Lobov
Warlley Alves vs. Jim Wallhead
Aspen Ladd vs. Lina Lansberg
Felipe Arantes vs. Josh Emmett
