Sergey Spivak steps in to face Greg Hardy at UFC 270 with Aleksei Oleinik out

The first two Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events of 2022 — UFC Vegas 46 and UFC 270 — have seen major changes over the last few days due to injuries, COVID-19 or other. The latest hiccup in the string of changes is a Heavyweight fight between Greg Hardy and Aleksei Oleinik, which was set to go down at the pay-per-view (PPV) event on Jan. 22 in Anaheim, California.

According to MMA Fighting, Oleinik has been forced out of his bout against Hardy for undisclosed reasons. Stepping in for the long-time veteran is Sergey Spivak, who has little more than one week to prepare for the former NFL star.

Spivak is coming off a loss to Tom Aspinall in Sept. 2021. Prior to that, he had won three straight and four of five overall. In fact, Spivak has a win over Oleinik, so tagging him to take his place seemed like a no-brainer. Hardy, meanwhile, is trying to snap a two-fight losing streak.

UFC 270 will feature a 265-pound title unification bout between division kingpin, Francis Ngannou, and interim champion, Ciryl Gane, while Brandon Moreno puts his Flyweight strap on the line against Deiveson Figueiredo in a trilogy bout.