Bo Nickal’s much hyped sophomore fight in the UFC is facing a late rewrite after his opponent Tresean Gore withdrew from Saturday night’s UFC 290 event in Las Vegas.

Nickal, the US national champion wrestler and three-time NCAA Division I champ from Penn State, was set to take on Gore in his second pay-per-view outing in the UFC cage, but UFC matchmakers are today scrambling to identify a new opponent after Gore revealed on social media that he had been forced to pull out of the fight due to a wrist injury.

Ariel Helwani reported on Tuesday that the UFC is in the process of locating a replacement opponent for Nickal. It is hoped that a new opponent will be confirmed by Tuesday evening.

Nickal made his official UFC debut in March where he stopped Jamie Pickett by arm-triangle choke submission with around two minutes remaining in the first round. Prior to that, the 27-year-old had a two-fight stint on Dana White’s Contender Series, defeating both opponents by submission in a cumulative time of less than two minutes.

The American wrestler has been highlighted by many analysts as a future title contender in the UFC’s middleweight division.

As for Gore, he said that the nature of his wrist injury means that it will likely require surgery which he says might keep him out of the competition for between six months and a year.

UFC 290 will be headlined by a featherweight world title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and challenger Yair Rodriguez. Brandon Moreno will also defend his flyweight championship in a rematch against Alexandre Pantoja. The main card will also see Dan Hooker and Jalin Turner fight after an initial booking was delayed earlier this year by a Hooker injury. Elsewhere, Robert Whittaker and Dricus du Plessis will fight in a middleweight top contender matchup.