A bantamweight fight between ‘Brutal’ Johnny Bedford (18-9-1) and Canadian fighter Mitch Gagnon (8-1) has been pulled from this weekends UFC on FOX 2 event due to visa issues on Gagnon’s part.
Officials with the promotion announced the update on Wednesday afternoon at UFC.com.
– Red tape has put a stranglehold on one of the planned fights for the UFC on FOX card in Chicago: The bantamweight bout between Johnny Bedford and Mitch Gagnon has been pulled due to visa issues.
Their bout had been scheduled to appear on the Fuel TV televised portion of the event, and will now be replaced by Facebook prelim heavyweights Joey ‘The Mexicutioner’ Beltran (13-6) and Lavar ‘Big’ Johnson (15-5), who makes his Octagon debut.
UFC on FOX: Evans vs. Davis (aka UFC on FOX 2) is scheduled to take place this Saturday (Jan. 28, 2012) at the United Center in Chicago, Ill. The three bout main card will air live on FOX television, while the prelim card is broken up between FUEL TV and Facebook. Six bouts will appear on FUEL TV, while only one bout will stream live on Facebook.
Beford had debuted as part of season fourteen of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ winning his debut last December. Gagnon was to debut at the Chicago event, but will have to wait for another day to do so.
Beltran is 1-3 in his last four and is coming off a decision loss to Stipe Miocic at UFC 136. While Johnson has lost two straight, coming over as part of the unification of heavyweights between the Strikeforce and UFC divisions.