UFC Belfast gets added injection of Irish interest as Charlie Ward’s debut is brought forward

Artem Lobov will see a familiar face in Belfast in two weeks' time.

Straight Blast Gym welterweight Charlie Ward, originally scheduled to make his UFC debut in Albany in early December, has seen his promotional coming out party moved forward by three weeks. Ward (3-1) will now compete closer to home as The Mac Life reports that he has been added to the Belfast event that will take place on November 19. No reason for the switch-up has been revealed just yet but it's believed that a new opponent will be confirmed for Ward in the coming days. He was originally slated to debut against 8-1 product of Dana White's Lookin' for a Fight, Randy Brown, but is expected to be matched up with a replacement shortly. https://twitter.com/CharlieWardMMA/status/774468673792831488 The addition of an Irishman can only improve the appeal of the card as the event's Irish interest had been reduced to just two fights - Neil Seery vs. Ian McCall and Artem Lobov vs. Teruto Ishihara - since Ward's SBG stablemate Gunnar Nelson was forced to withdraw from the main event with an injury. A middleweight rematch between Gegard Mousasi and Uriah Hall will now headline the event in the SSE Arena. Who are the winners of the much-coveted 2016 Wooly Awards? Find out in our GAA Hour Special