An anticipated matchup between top-10 welterweight contenders Ian Machado Garry and Vicente Luque has been removed from the UFC 296 main card due to Garry falling ill.
UFC president Dana White confirmed late Wednesday an initial report from Chael Sonnen that Garry was out of Saturday’s event. White explained Garry had the flu which turned into pneumonia.
The 26-year-old rising star from Ireland said it was the UFC physician’s decision to remove him from the event, according to Ariel Helwani.
Garry is 13-0 in mixed martial arts and was aiming to improve to 7-0 in the UFC and establish himself as a legitimate future threat to the title. Meanwhile, Luque was looking to end his 2023 with an upset win over one of the more promising young fighters in the weight class and build off his August win over Rafael dos Anjos.
Luque expressed disappointment in the bout being cancelled but wished Garry a speedy recovery.
“It’s really unfortunate,” Luque said in a video posted to social media.
“I was so ready for this fight. I’ve had a great training camp. ...The easiest weight cut I’ve ever had in my career. I have all my team here supporting me (but) unfortunately it’s not going to happen. It’s out of my control. Everything that I could do, everything that I have control of in my job and really put my heart into this I did. I gave it my all. Unfortunately, we cannot really control everything. As I said, I wish the best, I wish recovery for Ian. Now it’s time for me to rest. I did have a hard training camp.”
It’s unclear if the UFC intends on re-booking this matchup for an event in 2024, or if Garry and Luque will move on to face different opponents. It was also not immediately clear which of the nine scheduled UFC 296 preliminary bouts would get the bump up to the pay-per-view portion of the event, which takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Nevada.
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