Officials announced that the UFC lost a major heavyweight event between Derrick Lewis and Sergei Spivak just hours before it was held.
UFC commentator Brendan Fitzgerald alerted viewers to the cancellation during the preliminary part of the UFC fight night inside the Apex. According to Fitzgerald, Lewis was forced to retire from the main event due to an “uncooked, non-heavy illness.”
After the card ended Saturday, UFC chief doctor Jeff Davidson told Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole that Lewis had gone to the emergency room with “stomach problems,” but was later cleared.
According to the program, the light and heavy fight between Kennedy Nzechukwu and Ion Cutelaba has moved from the main event to the main event and will remain three rounds.
Lewis (26-10 MMA, 17-8 UFC) is the leader of the UFC. He said he’s prepared for the fight now canceled more than ever.
” This year, I’ve probably trained the most I’ve ever done in my last two fights, and they haven’t come my way,” Lewis said Friday. ” I did everything I could and it didn’t go my way. I don’t know. I’ve been training even harder for this fight. We’ll see about Saturday.”
Called “The Black Beast,” he approached on Saturday with knockout losses to Tai Tuivasa and Sergei Pavlovich. The meeting with Spivak (15-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) gave the 37-year-old a boost.
In addition to the unfortunate cancellation, Miles Johns posted some news after winning a close game against Vince Morales.
“My coach was dragged to the table last night and they said the UFC would suspend him,” Johns said in a postgame interview with Michael Bisping.
John’s coach is former UFC fighter James Krause, who noted that he earned “more money on gambling on MMA” than anything else. A source told Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole that there is no evidence that Krause had done anything wrong, but the commission would not allow him to work on Saturday while there is an ongoing betting investigation into a fight involving a Krause fighter.