Saturday’s UFC event in Las Vegas has lost its featured fight after a positive test for COVID-19 ruled Curtis Blaydes out of his headliner with Derrick Lewis.
News of the fight’s cancellation was first reported by ESPN with several further sources confirmed that Blaydes’ positive test had ruled him out of the fight. Initial reports state that the UFC is contemplating delaying the fight until a later date in December.
This is a blow to the UFC on the eve of the event, having already had several fights fall off their December schedule. The UFC will now presumably bump up the originally scheduled co-main between Anthony Smith and Devin Clark to headliner status.
The fight between Lewis and Blaydes was set to be a pivotal fight in the heavyweight division title picture, with Blaydes currently ranked second and Lewis in fourth position. Both men were coming into the fight on the back of respectable winning streaks in the heavyweight fold, with Blaydes having won four straight since his last defeat to Francis Ngannou in November 2018.
Lewis, meanwhile, has won three fights in a row — the most recent of which was an August TKO win against Aleksei Oleinik.
