UFC has been forced to remove a fight from its UFC 268 mixed martial arts event scheduled for November 6, 2021, 8:00 PM EDT.
The scheduled middleweight Bout between Sean Strickland and Luke Rockhold has now been scrapped from the fight card after Rockhold injured his back in training.
“There’s no easy way to really say it, but the fight is off in New York,” Rockhold said on his Instagram story. “I ended up herniating a disc in my back. L4, L5. The docs say it’s nothing I can play with. I need to do some treatment and recovery time.”
Had the fight taken place, the betting odds were in favor of Strickland at -175 while Rockhold was the betting underdog at +155.
Strickland most recently appeared at UFC Vegas 33, taking on and defeating Uriah Hall via decision in a middleweight bout. Strickland went into the fight as the -210 moderate favorite. The win extended his winning streak to 5 in a row.
In his most recent octagon appearance, Rockhold was defeated by Jan Błachowicz via KO/TKO back at UFC 239 in a light heavyweight bout. Rockhold was the moderate favorite in the fight, coming in at -250. The loss extended his losing streak to 2 in a row.
UFC 268 will now proceed with 13 bouts. The UFC is expected to announce the revised fight card shortly to make it official. This is the 2nd fight to be cancelled on this card.
UFC 268 is headlined by a UFC Welterweight Championship fight between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington.
Full UFC 268 card and bout order
- Kamaru Usman (-285) vs. Colby Covington (+245)
- Rose Namajunas (-115) vs. Weili Zhang (+105)
- Justin Gaethje (-175) vs. Michael Chandler (+155)
- Frankie Edgar (+140) vs. Marlon Vera (-160)
- Andreas Michailidis () vs. Alex Pereira ()
- Al Iaquinta () vs. Bobby Green ()
- Shane Burgos () vs. Billy Quarantillo ()
- Edmen Shahbazyan (+130) vs. Nassourdine Imavov (-145)
- C.J. Vergara () vs. Ode Osbourne ()
- Jordan Williams () vs. Ian Garry ()
- Gian Villante () vs. Chris Barnett ()
- Aleksa Camur () vs. John Allan ()
- Melsik Baghdasaryan () vs. T.J. Laramie ()
