With Danny Roberts out, Jesse Ronson steps in to face Nicolas Dalby on UFC's July 25 event

Almost six years after his last octagon appearance, Jesse Ronson is on his way back to the UFC.

British welterweight Danny Roberts has been forced out of the UFC’s July 25 event due to injury and Ronson (20-10 MMA, 0-3 UFC) received the call to step in and face Nicolas Dalby on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

A person with knowledge of the booking told MMA Junkie on Friday, after an initial report from TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter. They asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.

Ronson was released from the UFC in 2014 after suffering three straight split-decision losses to Michel Prazeres, Francisco Trinaldo and Kevin Lee. He went on to compete in numerous other promotions around the world, winning both the welterweight and lightweight titles at Canadian promotion TKO. His most recent stint was with the PFL, but he was unsuccessful in his quest to capture the $1 million prize after suffering back-to-back losses to Natan Schulte and Nikolay Aleksakhin. Most recently, Ronson picked up a first-round submission victory for regional Canadian promotion BTC in February.

Dalby (18-3-1 MMA, 2-3-1 UFC), who’s won his last four in a row, made a triumphant return to the octagon last September in his home country of Denmark, when he defeated Alex Oliveira by unanimous decision. He was originally booked to face Roberts in London in March, but that event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the bout was rebooked for July 25. Now the Dane will face Ronson as he bids to register back-to-back victories in his second UFC stint.

With the change, the current July 25 lineup includes:

Darren Till vs. Robert Whittaker Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio Rua Alex Oliviera vs. Peter Sobotta Alexander Gustafsson vs. Fabricio Werdum Nicolas Dalby vs. Jesse Ronson Tom Aspinall vs. Jake Collier Raphael Pessoa vs. Justin Tafa Movsar Evloev vs. Mike Grundy Bethe Correia vs. Pannie Kianzad Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Nathaniel Wood Ramazan Emeev vs. opponent TBA Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs. Paul Craig Jai Herbert vs. Francisco Trinaldo