UFC 296 has lost another fight.
The final UFC pay-per-view for 2023 lost a welterweight bout between [autotag]Randy Brown[/autotag] and [autotag]Muslim Salikhov[/autotag]. The bout fell through after Brown was forced to withdraw due to illness.
MMA Junkie conformed the news on Thursday night after an initial report from MMA Mania.
This is the second fight to fall through in less than 24 hours for UFC 296. On Wednesday night, UFC president Dana White announced that Ian Garry was out of his fight against Vicente Luque after getting pneumonia. It’s uncertain if Brown (17-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) vs. Salikhov (19-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) will be scheduled for a later date.
Brown was looking to build off his unanimous decision win over Wellington Turman this past June. The UFC veteran is 5-1 in his last six fights. Brown’s only loss came to rising contender Wellington Turman.
On the other hand, Salikhov was hoping to bounce back from his defeat to Nicolas Dalby in June. He’s 1-2 in his past three trips to the octagon.
Below is the updated card for UFC 296:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
- Champ Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington – for welterweight title
- Champ Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval – for flyweight title
- Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
- Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett
- Josh Emmett vs. Bryce Mitchell
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN2/ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
- Dustin Jacoby vs. Alonzo Menifield
- Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
- Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
- Ariane Lipski vs. Casey O’Neill
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)
- Cody Durden vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
- Lucas Almeida vs. Andre Fili
- Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.