UFC 205 has lost one its local heroes just days before fight night.
The historic card is set to be a landmark day for fight fans in the Big Apple. After going nearly 20 years of the sport being outlawed in the state, 2016 will mark the year that the iconic Madison Square Garden finally housed an Octagon.
Champions such as Matt Serra, Chris Weidman and Jon Jones never had the chance to defend their belt in their backyard, but that era is now over. Weidman will take on Yoel Romero in a potential title eliminator bout on the card, but another former champion, Rashad Evans, has been pulled from the event.
The former UFC light heavyweight king was scheduled to take on Tim Kennedy on the preliminary card, but according to a report from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, the fight is off due to an undisclosed issue that came up in his medical testing.
With Dana White right now, tells me Evans/Kennedy is off due to an issue with Evans's medicals. More info to come.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) November 8, 2016
This isn’t the first fight to be scrapped from the UFC 205 card. A welterweight bout between former champion Robbie Lawler and fan-favourite Donald Cerrone was the first confirmed bout of the event, but Lawler withdrew from the contest a few days after the announcement
A light heavyweight bout between Bellmore brawler Gian Villante and Marcos Rogério de Lima was also briefly linked to the event. However, Villante was forced out of the bout with an injury.
There was a lot of excitement for Kennedy vs Evans, especially considering it was set to be Evans’ middleweight debut. Here’s hoping the MMA Gods don’t get greedy and try to deprive us of another one of the phenomenal match-ups on this super-stacked card.
