With Mark Striegl out, Jamey Simmons targeted to fight Johnny Munoz at UFC 261

The UFC 261 lineup has been tweaked.

The promotion is targeting a bantamweight fight as Jamey Simmons replaces Mark Striegl to take on Johnny Munoz. The fight is expected to take place on the April 24 pay-per-view card, which will be the first the UFC has held in front of a full capacity crowd since March 2020.

Two people with knowledge of the matchup informed MMA Junkie of the change but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.

It’s unclear why Striegl withdrew from the originally scheduled matchup.

Both UFC sophomores, Munoz (10-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) and Simmons (7-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) will seek their first promotional victories against one another. A KOTC standout, Munoz made his UFC debut in August when he lost a unanimous decision to Nathan Maness. Five weeks later, Simmons lost his debut fight against Giga Chikadze via first-round TKO.

UFC 261 takes place at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. The main card streams on pay-per-view after prelims on ESPN/ESPN+.

With the change, the UFC 261 lineup includes:

• Champ Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal – for welterweight title

• Champ Zhang Weili vs. Rose Namajunas – for women’s strawweight title

• Champ Valentina Shevchenko vs. Jessica Andrade – for women’s flyweight title

• Uriah Hall vs. Chris Weidman

• Jimmy Crute vs. Anthony Smith

• Danaa Batgerel vs. Kevin Natividad

• Brendan Allen vs. Karl Roberson

• Qileng Aori vs. Jeffrey Molina

• Johnny Munoz vs. Jamey Simmons

List

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