Ilir Latifi has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled Light Heavyweight showdown against Volkan Oezdemir, which was set to go down at UFC on ESPN+ 11 this Saturday night (June 1, 2019) inside Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced the unfortunate news earlier today (Thurs., May 30, 2019). From the official statement:
Due to a back injury, Ilir Latifi has been forced to withdraw from his Saturday UFC Fight Night bout against Volkan Oezdemir. The bout will not be replaced, and the card at Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe will proceed with 12 bouts.
The 205-pound showdown was set to be the co-headlining act. That duty will now go to Jimi Manuwa and Aleksander Rakic. As for Volkan, he won’t be getting a late replacement, so he has to now sit back and see what type of compensation UFC gives him for making the trip to Sweden.
UFC on ESPN+ 11 — which will air on ESPN+ — will be headlined by a 205-pound matchup between former three-time title contender Alexander Gustafsson taking on Anthony Smith, who recently came up short in his first-ever UFC title fight against Jon Jones.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Fight Night 153 fight card below, starting with the ESPN2 “Prelims” undercard bouts at 10 a.m. ET, followed by the ESPN+ main card start time of 1 p.m. ET.
To see who else is fighting at UFC on ESPN+ 11 click here.