Renato Moicano was all set to tango with Rafael Fiziev this Saturday night (Nov. 28, 2020) at UFC Vegas 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada. But after Moicano tested positive for COVID-19, he was forced to withdraw from the event. No fret, the promotion wasted no time in setting another date, as MMA Fighting reports that they will now throw down at the upcoming UFC 256 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Dec. 12, 2020.
It’s been a long road back for Moicano, who hasn’t competed since March of this year. He was in line to return against Magomed Mustafaev at UFC Fight Island 6 this past October, but he was forced out of the event for undisclosed reasons. Weeks later, he was booked to face Fiziev before testing positive for the coronavirus.
Fizieve, meanwhile, is currently riding a two-fight win streak and was last seen defeating Marc Diakiese at UFC Fight Island 2 in a thrilling “Fight of the Night” performance.
The addition of this fight is a much-needed one for UFC 256. The event was originally set to be headlined by a Welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns, but was ultimately cancelled. As a result, the co-main event between UFC “champ-champ” Amanda Nunes and Megan Anderson was pegged as the new headliner.
But as luck would have it, that fight was also canceled, leading the promotion to book a Bantamweight title fight between division king, Petr Yan, and Aljamain Sterling as the new main event. Then disaster struck again, as Yan was forced out of the fight which then prompted UFC to book a Flyweight title fight between champion Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno.
The promotion also recently announced that former interim Lightweight champion Tony Ferguson will face Charles Oliveira in the co-main event.