Yahya suffered a neck injury.
Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt’s return to 135 lbs has hit a snag.
BJPenn.com was first to report that Brazilian veteran Rani Yahya is out of his UFC Vegas 58 matchup with Garbrandt due to a neck injury. MMA Fighting learned that Yahya has no timetable for a return and he won’t be able to train for at least four weeks.
It’s not known at this point whether the UFC will keep Garbrandt on the July 9th card or if they’ll look to reschedule the Yahya fight for a later date. Given the lack of a timetable, perhaps they’ll search for a new opponent instead.
Yahya (28-10-1-1 NC) has only lost once over his last seven fights, and is coming off a decision win over Kyung Ho Kang at UFC Vegas 43 last November. Ricky Simon is the only fighter to beat Yahya since August 2017, although Enrique Barzola did take the jiu-jitsu standout to a draw in 2020.
Garbrandt (12-5) has fallen a long way off from his days atop the 135 lbs division. ‘No Love’ won the title from Dominick Cruz in 2016, but has since gone 1-5 and has been knocked out in four of those defeats. He recently dropped to flyweight and was swiftly beaten by Kai Kara-France at UFC 269.
UFC Vegas 58 features a lightweight main event between former champion Rafael dos Anjos and rising star Rafael Fiziev.