Li Jingliang arrived in Las Vegas at the start of December primed and ready for a bout he hoped would re-establish his welterweight credentials. The Chinese fighter ended up getting far more than he bargained for as fate – and Covid-19 – intervened. The 32-year-old Li (17-6) has been forced to wait an extra month for his return to the Octagon after American Dwight Grant (10-3) fell ill with the coronavirus before their scheduled bout on the UFC 256 card on December 16. Now “The Leech” is set to return to action on the main card of this weekend’s UFC Fight Island 7 in Abu Dhabi, and instead of getting a fight he was favoured to win, he’s being thrown into the fray against a fellow veteran in Argentine Santiago Ponzinibbio (27-3), a man with similar designs on a top-15 ranking. Both fighters know exactly what is on the line. “He should be top 15, a very dangerous guy,” Li told SCMP MMA from Las Vegas. “He’s rested for two years but he won seven in a row before that, so he is obviously good. For both of us there is the thought of the top 15 so I realise how important this fight is for me.” Li had already decided to hang around in the United States, no matter what the outcome of that scheduled fight with Grant was, given the restrictions on travel. He wanted to train, unburdened by such concerns, and to be there on hand in case another opportunity was thrown his way. UFC: Zhang to fight Namajunas ‘this year and in Asia,’ says White Opportunity came when the virus also meant Russia’s Muslim Salikhov (17-2) was sidelined, after being booked for the Ponzinibbio bout. “We were prepared,” Li said of his decision to take this new fight. “Covid has been with us for a while now and has become part of the game. There’s a possibility anyone can be hit by it. I was disappointed but it’s what happens. I feel sorry for Dwight Grant and hope he recovers but we move on to the next opponent and the next challenge.” What helps this weekend’s clash promise so much is the stage of their respective careers. Li is coming off a disappointing loss to wily American Neil Magny (24-7) at UFC 248 last March, a result that brought a three-fight win streak to a shuddering halt. The 35- year-old Ponzinibbio was on that 7-0 run of his own until November 2018then a spate of injuries stopped him from fighting. “Gente Boa” had seen off Magny with a fourth-round knockout as part of that streak. So time is ticking away for them, given the welterweight division has in the past 12 months unearthed rising stars such as the surging Russian-born Swede Khamzat Chimaev (9-0). “That last fight I was not in the best condition, maybe the worst in all my UFC fights so far,” Li said. “I arrived too late to adjust to the time zone and I travelled to Thailand first, then Korea, then LA and then Las Vegas. There was weight cutting, worry over Covid. Everything was a mess. “[Magny] is a very good fighter, one of the best. He’s rangy, difficult to deal with. I learned a lot, not just in terms of technical things – how I prepare for the fight. We’ve worked together as a team to solve the problems we faced.” The extra time in the US has seen Li hook up with countryman Song “The Kung Fu Monkey” Yadong (16-4-1, one no contest) at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, under the command of UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber (35-11). Joining them also has been the third-ranked strawweight Yan “Fury” Xiaonan (13-1, one no contest). “For my last fight I arrived just 10 days before and it didn’t work well,” Li said. “My condition just wasn’t good. This time I’ve been here a long time. I’ve adjusted and I’m in the best condition I can be. “My purpose is to face higher ranks. That’s what I’m in the UFC for, to keep testing myself against the best in the world.”