Oleksiejczuk was expected to have made his UFC debut to face Ion Cuțelaba on November 4, 2017, at UFC 217, replacing injured Gadzhimurad Antigulov. In turn after the weigh-ins, Cuțelaba was pulled from the event by USADA due to a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from its investigation into voluntary disclosures by Cuțelaba during an out-of-competition sample collections on October 18 and October 19. Cuțelaba was provisionally suspended and the bout was scrapped.
