The first half of 2024 is in the books yet the UFC’s stretch of bad luck with late alterations to cards has continued ahead of the organization’s first of three July events. UFC Fight Night: Namajunas vs. Cortez goes down Saturday in Denver and there have been plenty of twists and turns along the way.
In addition to the original scheduled main event between Rose Namajunas and Maycee Barber being changed to Namajunas vs. Tracy Cortez after Barber withdrew, the card has seen multiple other changes including the addition of a new matchup that’ll open the preliminary card.
The UFC announced Wednesday it had added a welterweight scrap between Evan Elder and Darrius Flowers to the prelims. Elder is 8-2 in mixed martial arts but has lost two of his three UFC appearances, while Flowers is 12-7-1 in MMA and 0-2 at the UFC level.
Previously, Cortez was initially slated to face Miranda Maverick on the July 20 UFC Apex card but took advantage of her first main event opportunity instead on short notice when Barber was out.
Denver’s own Drew Dober was initially slated to face Mike Davis but was briefly left without an opponent when Davis tore a bicep. Fellow knockout artist Jean Silva, who typically competes at featherweight, stepped up a weight class on short notice to face Dober. Silva knocked out Charles Jourdain two weeks ago at UFC 303 but was fined ahead of that bout because he missed weight by 1.5 pounds.
A 170-pound clash between Canadian Mike Malott and Gilbert Urbina was supposed to take place on the main card but was pulled after Urbina suffered an injury. Malott, who was also dealing with an injury, decided against accepting a new opponent and instead will continue healing.
Earlier in the week, undefeated 23-year-old Fatima Kline, the active CFFC strawweight and flyweight champion, replaced an injured Viviane Araujo ahead of a matchup with Canadian Jasmine Jasudavicius.
Joshua Van vs. Charles Johnson is the featured preliminary bout. Johnson is Van’s fourth scheduled opponent since the beginning of June. Van had bouts with Tagir Ulanbekov, Tatsuro Taira and Sumudaerji all cancelled for various reasons but the 22-year-old can improve to 11-1 as a pro with a win.
Below is the updated 12-fight bout order for UFC Denver as of Thursday afternoon:
MAIN CARD
— Rose Namajunas vs. Tracy Cortez
— Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Muslim Salikhov
— Drew Dober vs. Jean Silva
— Gabriel Bonfim vs. Ange Loosa
— Julian Erosa vs. Christian Rodriguez
— Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Cody Brundage
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Joshua Van vs. Charles Johnson
— Jasmine Jasudavicius vs. Fatima Kline
— Montel Jackson vs. Da'Mon Blackshear
— Luana Santos vs. Mariya Agapova
— Josh Fremd vs. Andre Petroski
— Evan Elder vs. Darrius Flowers
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