UFC Vegas 15 has lost its headliner
UFC Vegas 15 has lost its main event.
According to Ariel Helwani of ESPN, Curtis Blaydes has been pulled from his main event fight with Derrick Lewis after he tested positive for COVID-19.
Curtis Blaydes vs. Derrick Lewis — tomorrow night’s UFC main event — has been canceled, per multiple sources. Blaydes has tested positive for COVID.
The promotion is hoping to reschedule the fight in December, sources say, though that isn’t a done deal just yet.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) November 27, 2020
Helwani also reported that the UFC were hoping to reschedule Blaydes vs. Lewis for sometime in December.
Presumably, UFC Vegas 15 will now be headlined by Anthony Smith vs. Devin Clark (which was previously scheduled to be the co-main event).
Blaydes was heading into this weekend’s event, at the UFC APEX, on a four fight winning streak. After a TKO loss to Francis N’Gannou in 2018, he beat Justin Willis, Shamil Abdurakhimov, Junior dos Santos and Alexander Volkov.
Lewis is on a three fight winning streak with wins over Blagoy Ivanov, Ilir Latifi and Aleksei Oleinik.
With Blaydes sitting 2nd in the UFC heavyweight rankings (behind Francis Ngannou) and Lewis at 4th, their fight was likely to lead to a title shot in the near future.