The event was the first in
London since
UFC Fight Night: Till vs. Masvidal in March 2019. The UFC was expected to return to the city in March 2020 at
UFC Fight Night: Woodley vs. Edwards and in September 2021 at
UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Till, but the first event was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and the latter was relocated to
Las Vegas. Aspinall was originally expected to face
Shamil Abdurakhimov, but after he was pulled in favor of the main event spot, Abdurakhimov was rescheduled against
Sergei Pavlovich instead. A bantamweight bout between
Jack Shore and
Umar Nurmagomedov was scheduled for the event. However, Nurmagomedov was removed from the bout due to undisclosed reasons and replaced by
Timur Valiev. A flyweight bout between Jake Hadley and
Francisco Figueiredo was scheduled for the event. However, Figueiredo withdrew from the event due to undisclosed reasons and was replaced by Allan Nascimento. Hadley eventually had to pull out due to injury and the bout was scrapped. They were later rescheduled to meet at
UFC Fight Night 209. A lightweight bout between
Jai Herbert and
Mike Davis was scheduled for the event. However, Davis withdrew from the bout for personal reasons and was replaced by
Ilia Topuria.
Cláudio Silva was expected to face
Gunnar Nelson in a welterweight bout. However, Silva pulled out in early March due to a knee injury. He was replaced by
Takashi Sato. A bantamweight bout between Liudvik Sholinian and
Nathaniel Wood was scheduled for this event. However, due to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sholinian was unable to leave Ukraine or train properly, so he was replaced by
Vince Morales. In turn, just days before the event, Morales withdrew due to illness. The pairing will be rescheduled for a future event. ==Results==