The UFC’s return to Las Vegas this weekend took another turn in fight week when Trey Ogden was forced out of his matchup with Tommy Gantt because of injury, and the promotion signed Artur Minev to step in for a short-notice debut against Gantt.
Minev arrives with a perfect 7-0 professional record after a 3-0 amateur run, and he has finished all but one of his pro fights. Five of those stoppages came in the first round, a pace that helped push him into the Octagon after his latest win over Derek Campos at Fury FC 113 in January. That victory was Minev’s fourth appearance for Texas-based Fury FC.
The change gives Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card a new wrinkle at a time when every slot matters. The event, headlined by Arnold Allen and Melquizael Costa, began fight week with 14 scheduled bouts, and losing Ogden would have left another opening on a card already built around a deep lineup in Las Vegas.
Gantt, though, is no ordinary short-notice test. He earned his UFC opportunity with a first-round submission of Adam Livingston on Dana White’s Contender Series last September, and he has stayed busy enough to put together an 11-0 record with one no contest in a little over two years. He won his pro debut in 21 seconds in 2024 and has captured welterweight belts with New Line Cagefighting and North Iowa Fights.
That makes this debut a sharp matchup between two unbeaten fighters with very different paths to the same stage. Minev is stepping in after the injury that removed Ogden from the card, while Gantt is trying to extend a rapid rise that already includes 10 wins and a UFC contract earned under the brightest possible spotlight.
For Minev, the debut comes at the most unforgiving moment possible, but it also gives the UFC a fighter whose record suggests he is built for urgency. For Gantt, the assignment is the first real test of whether his momentum can hold against a late replacement who has spent most of his career ending fights early.
