After the UFC confirmed the withdrawal of Ian Machado Garry from UFC 296, the promotion bumped up the fight between Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell to the event’s main card.
The news came after UFC CEO Dan White verified that the Garry vs. Luque bout was scrapped from the lineup following Garry’s withdrawal due to pneumonia. “The Future” expressed his frustration over the matter, while Vicente Luque made talks with Kevin Holland to fight in a 180-pound catchweight bout.
According to “The Silent Assassin,” his team talked with Holland over the proposal and already informed the UFC about it. However, the plan will likely no longer manifest this weekend as the promotion already replaced their main card bout with the one between Emmett and Mitchell.
Aside from this, UFC also removed the welterweight bout between Randy Brown and Muslim Salikhov under the card’s early prelims.
These are just some of the changes the UFC made prior to this weekend’s event. Days ago, it was also announced that Mitchell replaced Giga Chikadze to fight Emmett at UFC 296. As confirmed by Chikadze, he tore his groin, leading to the injury that forced him out of the fight.
With these changes, the women’s bantamweight bout between Irene Aldana and Karol Rosa will move up the lineup to lead the preliminary card.
Here is the updated lineup of the event:
MAIN CARD
- Welterweight Title: Champ Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington
- Flyweight Title: Champ Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval
- Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
- Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett
- Josh Emmett vs. Bryce Mitchell
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
- Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
- Ariane Lipski vs. Casey O’Neill
EARLY PRELIMS
- Dustin Jacoby vs. Alonzo Menifield
- Cody Durden vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
- Lucas Almeida vs. Andre Fili
- Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev