Two Bouts Added to UFC 291 Lineup on July 29

The card for
UFC 291 continues to take shape, as the promotion announced two
new matchups for the July 29 event.

Matthew
Semelsberger will face Yohan
Lainesse at welterweight, while Roman
Kopylov will meet Claudio
Ribeiro at middleweight on the preliminary draw. UFC 291 takes
place at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is headlined
by a lightweight rematch pitting Dustin
Poirier against Justin
Gaethje for the BMF title.

Semelsberger is 5-3 since beginning his promotional tenure in 2020.
Most recently, “Semi the Jedi” dropped a split decision to Jeremiah
Wells at UFC Fight Night 222 on April 22.

A former competitor on Dana White’s Contender Series, Lainesse has
lost two of his first three Octagon appearances. In his last
outing, the Canadian known as “White Lion” was submitted by
Mike
Malott in the opening stanza at UFC Fight Night 220 on Feb.
25.

After losing his first two promotional appearances, Kopylov has
rebounded to score back-to-back stoppage victories against Alessio
Di Chirico and Punahele
Soriano in UFC competition. The 32-year-old Russian owns a 10-2
career mark, with nine of those triumphs coming inside the
distance.

Ribeiro will be fighting under the UFC banner for the third time in
2023 when he faces Kopylov. He suffered a second-round KO loss to
Abdul
Razak Alhassan in his promotional debut before stopping
Joseph
Holmes via Round 2 TKO at UFC 288.