The outlet bout on the UFC 273 essential card has been nixed.
UFC officers announced on Monday that middleweight prospect Nassourdine Imavov is unable to create his April Ninth showdown with Kelvin Gastelum due to the visa points. No note but on whether or no longer or no longer Gastelum will remain on the cardboard or if he’ll score a replacement opponent.
Imavov (11-3) has won three of his four UFC appearances, including consecutive TKO finishes of Ian Heinisch and Edmen Shabazyan. His only loss used to be a resolution against Phil Hawes, whom he damage slack nevertheless couldn’t attach away to steer sure of going to the scorecards. Primarily the most unusual UFC rankings attach the 26-year-extinct at #11 and no longer too a ways away from extreme title competition.
Gastelum (16-8, 1 NC) has lost 5 out of his last six nevertheless stays within the middleweight rankings at #10. The Final Fighter season 17 winner is coming off a unanimous resolution loss to presumptive next title challenger Jared Cannonier last August. He’d beforehand suffered a resolution loss to extinct champ Robert Whittaker. His only retract since 2019 is a resolution over Ian Heinisch.
While one fight fell by, a brand recent one has been added to the cardboard. A heavyweight matchup between Ilir Latifi and Aleksei Oleinik, first and principal scheduled for last weekend’s UFC Columbus essential card sooner than Latifi pulled out on fight day with a non-COVID illness, has been rescheduled for this tournament.
UFC 273 is headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion Alexander Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung aka ‘The Korean Zombie.’ Men’s bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling rematches extinct champ Petr Yan within the co-essential.
