acy Chiasson has been out for 15 months already. Now she’ll have to wait a little longer.
Chiasson (8-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) was set to take on Ketlen Vieira (14-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) in a women’s bantamweight bout next month at UFC Fight Night 234, the promotion’s first event of 2024. But Vieira has been removed from the fight, UFC officials said Friday, and Chiasson will not remain on the card.
In addition, the UFC made official that Bassil Hafez has been replaced by Matthew Semeslberger in his welterweight fight against Preston Parsons; Gabriel Santos has been replaced by Dana White’s Contender Series product Jean Silva in his featherweight bout against Westin Wilson; and Denys Bondar has been replaced by Joshua Van in his flyweight bout against Felipe Bunes.
Chiasson, the Season 28 women’s featherweight winner of “The Ultimate Fighter,” was hoping to get back in the win column following a knockout loss to Irene Aldana at UFC 279 in September 2022. In that fight, Aldana hit Chiasson with an upkick from her back, and the shot to the body took Chiasson out on her feet in the third round.
She was working off a split decision win over Norma Dumont in that bout, which was a 140-pound contracted fight. That win came on the heels of a submission loss to Raquel Pennington at featherweight, though – a fight for which Chiasson missed weight.
Vieira in July took a unanimous decision from Pannie Kianzad in London to get back track after her own loss to Pennington, a split decision that coincidentally came one year prior to when Vieira was supposed to return next month. Before the Pennington loss, the Brazilian had back-to-back decision wins over former bantamweight champions Miesha Tate and Holly Holm to put herself in title consideration.
UFC Fight Night 234 takes place Jan. 13 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and streams on ESPN+.
With the changes, the UFC Fight Night 234 lineup now includes:
MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
- Magomed Ankalaev vs. Johnny Walker
- Manel Kape vs. Matheus Nicolau
- Gabriel Benitez vs. Jim Miller
- Mario Bautista vs. Ricky Simon
- Brunno Ferreira vs. Phil Hawes
- Jean Silva vs. Westin Wilson
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET)
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
- Preston Parsons vs. Matthew Semelsberger
- Gaston Bolanos vs. Marcus McGhee
- Farid Basharat vs. Taylor Lapilus
- Felipe Bunes vs. Joshua Van
- Nikolas Motta vs. Tom Nolan
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 234.