[4] A light heavyweight bout between Antônio Rogério Nogueira and Jared Cannonier, briefly linked to UFC Fight Night: Poirier vs. Pettis, was instead scheduled for this event.

[5][6] However, on October 19, it was announced that Nogueira was pulled from the card after being notified by USADA of a potential doping violation, which resulted from an out-of-competition sample collected on September 27.

[8] A light heavyweight bout between former UFC Light Heavyweight Championship challenger Glover Teixeira and Misha Cirkunov was expected to take place at UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Machida, but was moved to this event after a recent hand injury for Teixeira was slow to heal and required surgery.

[14] Sultan Aliev and Sheldon Westcott were removed out of their respective fights against Nordine Taleb and Danny Roberts for undisclosed reasons.

However, on December 3, it was announced that Scoggins was pulled from the fight due to a spinal fracture injury and was replaced by promotional newcomer Pietro Menga.