The Chechen flyweight won’t be competing in New Jersey this weekend, after a ‘lingering back injury flared up’ during fight week.
Another week, another set of fight cancellations. Along with news that a planned women’s bantamweight bout between Aspen Ladd and Leslie Smith won’t be going ahead, due to Ladd missing weight, it looks like a flyweight contest between Magomed Bibulatov and Ulka Sasaki is off as well.
MMA Fighting reports that Bibulatov was removed from the card on Friday morning ahead of scheduled early weigh ins. According to Ariel Helwani, the culprit appears to be an ongoing back injury.
Magomed Bibulatov has been forced to withdraw from tomorrow’s fight against Ulka Sasaki at UFC Atlantic City, sources say. A lingering back injury flared up late last night.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 20, 2018
As the weigh-ins for this Saturday’s card have already been concluded, it’s safe to say that Sasaki has been pulled from the event as well. No word yet if the bout will be rescheduled for a later event, or if the fighters will be re-booked separately.
Here’s a look at the UFC Fight Night: Barboza vs. Lee card, as it stands right now, not accounting for the likelihood of one Fight Pass bout to be moved up to FS1.
FS1 MAIN CARD
Edson Barboza vs. Kevin Lee
Frankie Edgar vs. Cub Swanson
Chase Sherman vs. Justin Willis
David Branch vs. Thiago Santos
Aljamain Sterling vs. Brett Johns
Jim Miller vs. Dan Hooker
FS1 PRELIMS
Ryan LaFlare vs. Alex Garcia
Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Luan Chagas
Corey Anderson vs. Patrick Cummins
FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Merab Dvalishvili vs. Ricky Simon
Tony Martin vs. Keita Nakamura