Blades (17-3) last appeared in the octagon in July last year. He won via TKO after Tom Aspinall suffered a knee injury 15 seconds into the fight. The 31-year-old American is on a three-game winning streak, going 7-1 in his last eight appearances.
Pavlovich (17-1) has been rolling through the division in recent years. After losing his UFC debut to Alistair Overeem at the end of 2018, the Russian scored five victories by knockout in the first round. The last of these was obtained in December, when he dealt with Tai Tuivasa in just 54 seconds.
Note that the promotion has not yet announced the venue of the UFC Fight Night 223 show.