| UFC Fight Night: Błachowicz vs. Jacaré | |
| Promotion: | Ultimate Fighting Championship |
| Venue: | Ginásio do Ibirapuera |
| City: | São Paulo, Brazil |
| Attendance: | 10,344[1] |
UFC Fight Night: Błachowicz vs. Jacaré (also known as UFC Fight Night 164 and UFC on ESPN+ 22) was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that took place on November 16, 2019 at Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil.[2] [3]
A light heavyweight bout between former KSW Light Heavyweight Champion Jan Błachowicz and former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Ronaldo Souza served as the event headliner.[4]
A light heavyweight bout between Antônio Rogério Nogueira and Trevor Smith was scheduled for the event.[5] However, Nogueira was forced to pull out of the event due to injury, resulting in the cancellation of the bout. Smith was then expected to face Makhmud Muradov at .[6]
Leah Letson was expected to face Duda Santana at the event. However, Letson was removed from the bout in late September for undisclosed reasons.[7] Instead, Santana was expected to face promotional newcomer Tracy Cortez.[8] However, Santana then withdrew from the bout and was replaced by Vanessa Melo.[9]
Kevin Holland was scheduled to face promotional newcomer Antônio Arroyo at the event. However, promotion officials elected to remove Holland from the bout in favor of a matchup a month earlier at .[10] In turn, Trevin Giles, then Alessio Di Chirico were briefly linked as replacements to face Arroyo.[11] [12] Instead, Arroyo fought fellow newcomer André Muniz.[13]
A middleweight bout between Markus Perez and Jack Marshman was scheduled for the event. However, Marshman was pulled from the event for an undisclosed reason and replaced by Wellington Turman.[14]
Sam Alvey was scheduled to face former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Maurício Rua at the event. However, Alvey was removed from the fight on October 25 due to a broken hand.[15] Instead, Rua fought Paul Craig.[16]
A flyweight bout between former KSW Women's Flyweight Champion Ariane Lipski and Priscila Cachoeira was scheduled to take place at the event. However, upon testing positive for a diuretic and being pulled from the event, Cachoeira was replaced by Veronica Macedo.[17] In turn, Macedo was not cleared to fight by CABMMA due to severe headaches one day before the event and she was replaced by newcomer Isabella de Pádua.[18] At the weigh-ins, de Pádua weighed in at 130.5 pounds, 4.5 pounds over the flyweight non-title fight limit of 126 pounds. The bout proceeded at a catchweight. As a result of missing weight, de Pádua was fined 30% of her purse, which went to Lipski.[19]
At the weigh-ins, Tracy Cortez and her opponent Vanessa Melo both missed weight for their fight. Cortez and Melo both weighed in at 136.5 pounds, 0.5 pounds over the bantamweight non-title fight limit of 136 pounds. The bout would initially proceed at a catchweight and no fine was issued due to identical misses. However, later on the same day, CABMMA executive director Cristiano Sampaio announced that due to an error of the scale used at the weigh-ins, which was set was 0.7 pounds above the official scale, Cortez and Melo were officially clear from missing weight and thus the bout proceeded at bantamweight.[20]
The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses.[1]