UFC 296 Takes a Hit as Main Card Fight Cancelled
Ian Garry is out of his fight with Vicente Luque at UFC 296 on December 16. "The Future" was barred from fighting this weekend by a doctor after coming down with pneumonia. As of yet there is no replacement opponent for Luque.
"I have pneumonia. They tried everything to help me," Garry told Ariel Helwani. "In the end, UFC doctor said there's no chance I can fight. The UFC doctor made the call.
"This annoys me more than anyone. I want to fight. It's my favorite thing to do."
Luque released his own message on the matter:
"I wish him the best recovery, speedy recovery... the best for his family. And it's really unfortunate, I was so ready for this fight. I've had a great training camp.
"...Weight cut has been going so, so good - the easiest weight cut I've had in my career... It's out of my control."
One option for Luque is a trilogy bout with #2 ranked Belal Muhammad, who is the official backup for Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington, though it is doubtful Muhammad would accept the bout after defeating Luque back in April.
If the Luque fight is completely wiped from the card, the UFC would no doubt elevate the featured prelim between Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell to the main card. Fans can also expect the event to begin later.
UFC 296 now looks like this (subject to change):
- Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington
- Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval
- Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
- Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett
Vicente Luque vs. Ian Garry- Josh Emmett vs.
Giga ChikadzeBryce Mitchell - Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
- Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
- Casey O'Neill vs. Ariane Lipski
- Alonzo Menifield vs. Dustin Jacoby
- Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Cody Durden
- Andre Fili vs. Lucas Almeida
- Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev
- Randy Brown vs. Muslim Salikhov
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