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A welterweight matchup has been pulled from this weekends UFC on Versus 4 (aka UFC Live: Marquardt vs. Story) card after an illness to Canadian fighter T.J. Grant (16-5) forced him to withdraw from his fight with Charlie ‘The Spaniard’ Brenneman (13-2).
Brenneman posted the update on Twitter (@SpaniardMMA) and posted a video message to all his fans to express his disappointment.
“My opponent, T.J. Grant has apparently come down with pneumonia and he was unable to make the flight, unable to make the trip to Pittsburgh. Therefore my fight has been scrapped from the card. As you can tell this is pretty devastating to myself. Not only am I not able to fight after putting in the unbelievable hard work I’ve put in, I also have a ton of fans, family, friends coming to watch me fight and it’s a heart breaker not being able to perform after everyone puts in that effort, the money the travel, and the time.”
UFC on Versus 4 is set to take place this Sunday on June 26 at the Consol Engery Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The entire preliminary card will stream live on the web at Facebook.com/UFC, while the main card is set to air on the Versus network in the U.S. and on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada.
Grant, who reportedly has pneumonia, is 1-2 in his last three fights and sports a 3-3 record overall in the UFC. His last fight, a unanimous decision loss to Ricardo Almeida, took place last December at UFC 124. Grant’s last win was against Julio Paulino at UFC 119 in September, where the Canadian earned a unanimous decision victory.
Brenneman was actually a replacement for Grant’s first opponent, Matt Riddle, who withdrew from the event due to a training injury. ‘The Spaniard’ is 2-1 in the UFC and is 8-1 in his last nine bouts. Brenneman was last in the Octagon in January at the Fight for the Troops 2 show, earning a unanimous decision against Amilcar Alves.