Sean Strickland is out of his October 15 main event with Jared Cannonier and the headline bout has been scrapped completely, UFC chief Dana White has revealed.
White made the announcement at the post-fight media scrum following Tuesday’s broadcast of the Contender Series. Strickland had shared on social media earlier in the week that he would be undergoing surgery for an infected wound on his finger and that he’d be out for three weeks. The original cut stemmed from punching his sparring partner’s tooth during training.
“Yeah, it does [affect the upcoming fight]. He’s out,” White told reporters on Tuesday. “We had matchmaking today and that was when I found out there was something wrong with him. … I think we just scrapped the fight.”
Cannonier is yet to make a statement regarding the withdrawal.
The AllStar MMA roundup
- UFC Paris: Tai Tuivasa excited to fight Ciryl Gane, doesn’t mind being the underdog “it makes me push harder”
- UFC Paris: ‘King of Germany’ to be crowned when Dustin Stoltzfus takes on Abusupiyan Magomedov at UFC Paris
- UFC 279: Darian Weeks clarifies UFC Paris dropout, ready to open UFC 279 with a bang
The best of the rest
- DWCS Season 6, Week 6 results: Yusaku Kinoshita caps off another 5 contract night with brutal third-round knockout- MMAFighting.com
- Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva reportedly set for October boxing bout – MMAFighting.com
- Islam Makhachev: Leon Edwards got ‘lucky’ with head-kick KO, Kamaru Usman will win rematch – MMAjunkie.com
- ‘I don’t want to make it anymore’ – Flyweight GOAT Demetrious Johnson closes door on 125 lbs – BloodyElbow.com
- Report: Stockholm police arrested UFC’s Darren Till for DUI back in July – MMAJunkie.com
The soapbox
Tai ticks the ‘Euro duo-shoey’ off the bucket list:
Petr Yan runs into ‘Suga Sean’:
Till shouts out former opponent Robert Whittaker:
And Marvin Vettori:
Ben Askren on another Jorge Masvidal fight:
T-Wrecks and Diego link up:
Belal favours McGregor over Edwards:
The morning view
Experience Mark Hunt’s journey back to the ring:
Dan Hardy breaks down Tai Tuivasa vs Cyril Gane:
ESPN presents The UFC Journey: Cyril Gane vs Tai Tuivasa:
Done deals
Wednesday
- Darren Elkins to fight Jonathan Pearce at UFC Orlando on December 3rd (per Iridium Sports)
- Alex Perez to fight Amir Albazi at UFC Vegas 66 on December 17th (per MMA Fighting)
Tuesday
- Jessica Penne to fight Tabatha Ricci at UFC event on October 1st (per Dama De Ferro MMA)
Monday:
- Melsik Baghdasaryan to fight Joanderson Brito at UFC event on October 15th (per Maranhao MMA)
- Maxim Grishin to fight Philipe Lins at UFC event on October 1st (per Raphael Marinho)
- Alexey Oleynik to fight Ilir Latifi at UFC event on October 1st ( per MMA Fight Universe)
- Muslim Salikhov to fight Andre Fialho at UFC event on November 19th (per Full Violence)
- Angela Hill to fight Emily Ducote at UFC event on December 3rd (per Nolan King)
On this day in MMA…
On the 31st of August, 2019, Zhang Weili became the first Chinese UFC champion in history when she defeated Jéssica Andrade to claim the straw weight title at UFC on ESPN+ 15.
Weili ended the reigning Brazilian’s four-fight win streak within the opening minute of the very first round, utilising knees and elbows from the clinch, followed by a right hand and ground and pound before the referee stepped in.
‘Magnum’ would lose the title to Rose Namajunas in her following fight, suffering back to back losses after a subsequent rematch. A recent win over Joanna Jedrzejczyk has earned Weili another shot at the belt against current title holder, Carla Esparza, later this year.
