UFC 309 loses big name fighter minutes before event start

Certainly one of New York’s favourite UFC sons received’t get his likelihood to compete at Madison Sq. Backyard on Saturday.

Minutes earlier than UFC 309 began, the promotion introduced Chris Weidman’s battle was off on account of an sickness together with his opponent Eryk Anders. The three-round middleweight bout was anticipated to happen on the prelims.

Weidman (16-7 MMA, 12-7 UFC) and Anders (16-8 MMA, 8-8 UFC) each made weight seemingly with out challenge at Friday’s weigh-ins. Each had voiced pleasure for the bout. Neither fighter has commented on the cancellation on the time of publication.

Had it occurred, Weidman would’ve appeared to proceed momentum after a win over Bruno Silva in March. Anders aimed to win three of 4, having not too long ago change into leisure drug-free for the primary time in 14 years.

With the change, the UFC 309 battle card contains:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

Champ Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic – for heavyweight title
Michael Chandler vs. Charles Oliveira
Paul Craig vs. Bo Nickal
Viviane Araujo vs. Karine Silva
James Llontop vs. Mauricio Ruffy

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPNews/FX/Hulu, 8 p.m. ET)

Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee
Damon Jackson vs. Jim Miller
Jhonata Diniz vs. Marcin Tybura
Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Mickey Gall

PRELIMINARY CARD (Hulu/ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)

Bassil Hafez vs. Oban Elliott

For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 309.