UFC 334 Card Complete Again: Alatengheili Reported In for Yanez Against Juan Diaz
“The UFC 334 card for next week is complete again.”
Marcel Dorff reports that Alatengheili steps in on eight days' notice for Adrian Yanez at Madison Square Garden, restoring next Saturday's UFC 334 card to 13 fights. As of Saturday, the UFC's own event page still lists Yanez — the booking is reported, not yet reflected in the promotion's listing.
"The UFC 334 card for next week is complete again. Juan Díaz remains on the card. He takes on Alatengheili in New York!!" That was Dorff's post on X on Friday, and it closes a three-week hole on the UFC 334 card. MMA Junkie adds that both fighters confirmed the booking on social media after Dorff's initial report. The UFC itself has not yet updated its listing: checked Saturday, the official UFC 334 page still shows Yanez vs. Diaz in the early prelims, with Alatengheili nowhere on it.
Diaz lost his original opponent in mid-October. Yanez, 32 and 18-6-1, had been coming off a July knockout of former champion Cody Garbrandt. Yanez withdrew without the reason ever being disclosed, and on October 19 he confirmed it himself with an Instagram Story from a hospital bed: "Really wanted to fight at MSG, the history there… and I wanted to be a part of it. I'll be back soon tho. Lord willing." Diaz, who had been given the MSG step up after winning his UFC debut, stayed on the card and waited.
What waits for him now is the harder fight on paper. Diaz, a 28-year-old Peruvian and the first LUX Fight League bantamweight champion, is 16-1-1 and has never been finished — his only loss is a 2021 decision. He rides a nine-fight win streak: he won his UFC contract with a spinning back elbow knockout of Kwon Won-il on the Contender Series in October 2025, then submitted Malcolm Wellmaker with a second-round rear-naked choke in his debut in May, earning a Performance of the Night bonus.
Alatengheili, 34 — "The Mongolian Knight" from Inner Mongolia — is a 30-fight veteran with 10 UFC appearances behind him (6-3-1 in the promotion, 18-10-2 overall) taking the fight on eight days' notice. His recent form is honest rather than spectacular — he has alternated wins and losses across his last five UFC fights, and his most recent outing was a split-decision win over John Castañeda in September. Some coverage of Dorff's report has him on a three-fight win streak; the record says otherwise — he lost a unanimous decision to Da'Mon Blackshear in April 2025 between wins over Kleydson Rodrigues and Castañeda.
The card they complete is a strong one. Ciryl Gane makes the first defence of the heavyweight title he was elevated to after Tom Aspinall vacated it in September, against Josh Hokit. Kayla Harrison defends the women's bantamweight title against Amanda Nunes in a fight postponed from UFC 324 in January, when Harrison withdrew for surgery on herniated discs in her neck. Joselyne Edwards is expected to serve as the backup for that title fight. The Diaz bout is the card's second late repair job: César Almeida already replaced the withdrawn Baisangur Susurkaev against Donte Johnson, a change the UFC listing does reflect. The event runs Saturday, November 14 at Madison Square Garden, all on Paramount+ — early prelims 5 p.m. ET, prelims 7 p.m. ET, main card 9 p.m. ET.
The full UFC 334 card
Main card
- Ciryl Gane (c) vs. Josh Hokit — heavyweight title
- Kayla Harrison (c) vs. Amanda Nunes — women's bantamweight title
- Caio Borralho vs. Yousri Belgaroui — middleweight
- Uroš Medić vs. Kevin Holland — welterweight
- Bilal Hasan vs. Luis Gurule — flyweight
Prelims
- Stephen Thompson vs. Charles Radtke — welterweight
- Drew Dober vs. Chris Duncan — lightweight
- Jim Miller vs. Terrance McKinney — lightweight
- Donte Johnson vs. Cesar Almeida — middleweight
Early prelims
- Jared Gordon vs. Melquizael Costa — lightweight
- Macy Chiasson vs. Bia Mesquita — women's bantamweight
- Juan Diaz vs. Alatengheili — bantamweight (reported; UFC.com still lists Adrian Yanez)
- Evan Elder vs. Samuel Sanches — lightweight
