Gian Villante shrugging off switch from Cummins to newcomer Safarov at UFC Fight Night 102

ALBANY, N.Y. – Gian Villante has dealt with opponent switches before, but when one comes inside of a week before the fight, it’s new ground.

Villante (14-7 MMA, 4-3 UFC) was supposed to fight Patrick Cummins in a light heavyweight fight on today’s UFC Fight Night 102 main card. But when Cummins got a staph infection for the ages and had to pull out, Saparbek Safarov (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) got the call to make his UFC debut on super short notice.

But Villante said the switch won’t be a big deal at the event, which takes place at Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. The entire card streams on UFC Fight Pass.

“It doesn’t change much,” Villante told MMAjunkie. “Me and my coaches, we don’t really go into a fight ever with a game plan. We just go in there thinking we’re going to do what we want to do, and they’re going to have to adjust to us. If we have to make some adjustments on the fly, we will. We never know what they’re going to do.

“I’m sure he’s watched plenty of film on me, and he knows what I’m going to do, and I’m not changing it. I’m going to go forward, I’m going to punch you, I’m going to kick you, I’m going to knock you out. That’s it.”

Villante has dropped two of his past three, so getting back in the win column is of the utmost importance. But even though Safarov is new on the UFC scene, his resume shows him to be a potentially dangerous foe.

The Russian has all eight of his wins by stoppage, and he’s only been out of the first round once. That came in April against UFC vet Rodney Wallace, who got to the second round before a corner stoppage TKO for Safarov. But that was only his third fight in about four years, and Villante has had eight fights in that same amount of time.

Villante said he checked out some of Safarov’s work and is just counting on likely not having to fall back on his wrestling the way he probably would have against Cummins.

“I watched his last fight and maybe one more before that, just to kind of see where he was at,” Villante said. “I couldn’t really tell what he wanted to do. Fighting different guys, you never know. … He stands conventional, same size. Patrick was more of a specialized opponent where he likes to wrestle so much, so I did a lot of wrestling for this camp. That was the only thing that changed a little bit – I don’t think this guy’s going to try to wrestle as much as Patrick wanted to. If he is, I’m prepared for it. The biggest thing was just getting in shape, and If I could wrestle that much every camp I probably should because it got me in good shape.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 102, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.