Sam Alvey returns for fourth fight in five months at UFC Fight Night 97

Sam Alvey is a busy man these days.

The 30-year-old middleweight has agreed to step in and face Alex Nicholson on Oct. 15 at UFC Fight Night 97, the promotion announced Wednesday. The booking marks Alvey's fourth UFC fight over the past five months.

Alvey (28-8, 1 NC) holds a 2-1 record over his recent stretch and has won five of his eight UFC contests overall. All five of those victories have come by way of stoppage, highlighted by a trio of first-round knockouts over Dylan Andrews, Cezar Ferreira, and Dan Kelly.

Of late, Alvey rebounded from the first back-to-back losses of his career to pick up short-notice wins over TUF veterans Eric Spicely and Kevin Casey.

He'll now turn his sights to Nicholson (7-2), a 26-year-old prospect out of Florida who has thus far split his two UFC appearances, falling short to Misha Cirkunov but then defeating Devin Clark via first-round knockout. Nicholson recently came under fire for a racially charged comment he made about Hyun Gyu Lim while cornering his teammate Mike Perry at UFC 202.

UFC FIght Night 97 takes place at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Philippines. The event is headlined by a featherweight tilt between Ricardo Lamas and UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn.

An updated UFC Fight Night 97 fight card can be seen below.

• Ricardo Lamas vs. B.J. Penn
• Derrick Lewis vs. Marcin Tybura
• Ali Bagautinov vs. Kyoji Horiguchi
• Sam Alvey vs. Alex Nicholson
• Cole Miller vs. Mizuto Hirota
• Seo Hee Ham vs. Danielle Taylor
• Mehdi Baghdad vs. Jon Tuck
• James Moontasri vs. Alex Morono
• Ryan Janes vs. Dongi Yang
• Damir Hadzovic vs. Yukawa Kazuya
• Jenel Lausa vs. Yao Zhikui