Two UFC Fight Night 226 bouts fall through days out from Paris event
It’s UFC Fight Night 226 fight week, and the promotion is seeking two last-minute replacements.
The event, which takes place Saturday at Accor Arena in Paris and streams on ESPN+, is down a featherweight and a bantamweight as Lucas Almeida and Muin Gafurov are out of their respective bouts.
Almeida (14-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) announced Monday on Instagram his withdrawal from his bout vs. France’s William Gomis (12-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC), which was scheduled to be one of six main-card bouts. The announcement came one day after Gafurov (18-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) withdrew from his bout against France’s Taylor Lapilus (18-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) due to visa issues, according to multiple French news outlets, including La Sueur.
The promotion is currently seeking replacements to keep the two Frenchmen on the card, although it is unclear at this time what the options are just six days away.
With the changes, below is the UFC Fight Night 226 lineup:
MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 3 p.m. ET)
- Ciryl Gane vs. Serghei Spivac
- Manon Fiorot vs. Rose Namajunas
- Thiago Moises vs. Benoit Saint-Denis
- Bogdan Guskov vs. Volkan Oezdemir
- William Gomis vs. TBA
- Yanis Ghemmouri vs. Caolan Loughran
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, noon ET)
- Morgan Charriere vs. Manolo Zecchini
- Taylor Lapilus vs. TBA
- Jacqueline Cavalcanti vs. Zarah Fairn
- Nora Cornolle vs. Joselyne Edwards
- Ange Loosa vs. Rhys McKee
- Farid Basharat vs. Kleydson Rodrigues
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 226.