UFC is no longer rebooking the bout between Vicente Luque and Ian Machado Garry, and the former is probably the reason behind this. According to promotion CEO Dana White, “The Silent Assassin” was given a handful of options but “turned them all down.”
Luque and Garry were supposed to face each other last Saturday at UFC 296. However, “The Future” was forced to withdraw days before the event due to pneumonia. Kevin Holland then volunteered to step in as a replacement at the last minute, with Luque confirming that his team informed the promotion about this. However, it was reportedly denied, leading to the bout being removed from the event’s lineup.
Many expected the bout between Luque and Garry to be rebooked for UFC 299, but the UFC booked the latter with Geoff Neal at UFC 299. This ultimately affirmed that the Luque vs. Garry was completely scratched by the promotion, leaving fans clueless on the reason why.
UFC CEO Dana White, nonetheless, gave a short yet direct answer about the matter. According to the executive during the UFC 296 post-fight press conference, the company actually offered the Brazilian-American fighter different options but refused to take any of them.
“We offered Luque a bunch of fights,” White said, implying that Luque’s next fight is also unknown at the moment. “He turned them all down.”
While this is enough to clarify why the rebooking of the fight will no longer happen, it is still unknown why Luque refused to book any match. We will update this story as soon as Luque confirms and comments on the matter.
