Jasmin Frank-USA TODAY Sports
It’s a miracle there’s still a UFC card at the moment.
Last month’s UFC Vegas 7 was so ravaged with cancellations, COVID-19 or otherwise, that there were only nine fights on the card. With hours to go before fight night, tonight’s UFC VEGAS 9 has dwindled down to just seven fights.
MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz reported that light heavyweight Marcos Rogerio de Lima joins Thiago Moises on the list of fighters pulled from this event due to COVID-19. Alexander Romanov is obviously without an opponent and thus he’ll have to wait a bit longer to fight.
Lest we forget that Kevin Natividad, who replaced Ricky Simon when Simon’s corner tested positive for COVID-19, is also off this card for reasons unknown although it’s worth noting he had an apparent false positive earlier this week. Ray Rodriguez will now take on Brian Kelleher this evening.
UFC Vegas 9 will not even have a preliminary card. The action kicks off at 7 PM ET on ESPN+ and the seven fights will consist will all be considered the main card. Alistair Overeem takes on Augusto Sakai in the main event. Maybe. We think. I don’t even know anymore.