Breaking: UFC 313 Suffers Two Last-Minute Fight Cancellations, Including Heavyweight Contenders Clash
Less than three hours away from fight night, UFC 313 has taken a hit. Two, to be exact.
The promotion sent out a notice that the heavyweight clash between Curtis Blaydes and Rizvan Kuniev was officially off after Blaydes came down with an illness. Originally, the bout was scheduled to be the featured prelim of the evening.
Also on the chopping block was John Castaneda’s featherweight scrap against Chris Gutierrez after Castaneda became ill.
Blaydes and Castaneda are just the latest victims of a cursed UFC 313 card
UFC 313 has faced a slew of struggles in recent weeks, none bigger than the withdrawal of Dan Hooker who was scheduled to face Justin Gaethje in the evening’s co-main event. From the moment the fight was announced, fans were salivating to see two of the best scrappers in the game go toe-to-toe.
Unfortunately, ‘The Hangman’ was forced to bow out after breaking his hand whilst training. Gaethje remains on the card, but he’ll now be fighting the returning Rafael Fiziev who surrendered a majority decision loss to ‘The Highlight’ at UFC 286.
It will be Fiziev’s first fight since suffering a leg injury in the second round of his September 2023 meeting with Mateusz Gamrot.
Joshua Van was originally booked to fight Bruno Silva, but Silva was ultimately replaced by Rei Tsuruya, though the reason remains unknown. A heavyweight fight between Jhonata Diniz and Vitor Petrino was also canned back in January after Petrino suffered lateral epicondylitis in both elbows.
With Blaydes and Castaneda both out, UFC 313 drops from 12 fights to 10. Fingers crossed we don’t get any more late scraps with the event mere minutes away.
