The UFC’s four-event stint on Fight Island (Yas Island in Abu Dhabi) has been hit by three shake-ups, including two resulting from positive COVID-19 tests.
Earlier this week, MMA Junkie reported that England’s Danny Roberts has withdrawn from his welterweight fight with Denmark’s Nicolas Dalby, and Kazakhstan’s Shavkat Rakhmonov is out of his welterweight fight with Russia’s Ramazan Emeev. The report did not specify why Roberts and Rakhmonov withdrew. Both fights were scheduled to occur on the UFC’s July 25 Fight Island card — the final event in that location. Since then, Dalby has accepted Canada’s Jesse Ronson as a replacement opponent for the same card. Emeev is still without a replacement opponent.
Unfortunately, that’s not where the Fight Island shake-ups ended.
On Friday morning, MMA Fighting reported that Brazilian bantamweight Anderson dos Santos has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing his withdrawal from his July 15 fight with Welshman Jack Shore. A subsequent report from MMA Fighting announced that Brazil’s Vinicius Moreira is out of his light heavyweight fight with Lithuanian Englishman Modestas Bukauskas. Like dos Santos, Moreira also tested positive for COVID-19. Replacement opponents have not been found for either of the two men, who are both now quarantining.
Here are the updated lineups for Fight Island in the wake of these shake-ups (recent changes are italicized in bold).
UFC 251 – July 11 on Fight Island
Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns – welterweight title fight
Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway – featherweight title fight
Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo – vacant bantamweight title fight
Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas
Amanda Ribas vs. Paige VanZant
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Jiri Prochazka
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs. Muslim Salikhov
Makwan Amirkhani vs. Danny Henry
Leonardo Santos vs. Roman Bogatov
Marcin Tybura vs. Maxim Grishin
Raulian Paiva vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
Karol Rosa vs. Vanessa Melo
Martin Day vs. Davey Grant
UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs Ige – July 15 on Fight Island
Calvin Kattar vs. Dan Ige
Frankie Edgar vs. Pedro Munoz
Carla Esparza vs. Marina Rodriguez
Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Mounir Lazzez
Jared Gordon vs. Chris Fishgold
Modestas Bukauskas vs. TBA
Molly McCann vs. Talia Santos
Ricardo Ramos vs. Lerone Murphy
John Phillips vs. Dusko Todorovic
Tim Elliott vs. Ryan Benoit
Diana Belbita vs. Liana Jojua
Jack Shore vs. TBA
UFC Fight Night: Figueiredo vs. Benavidez 2 – July 18 on Fight Island
Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Joseph Benavidez – vacant flyweight title fight
Jack Hermansson vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Marc Diakiese vs. Rafael Fiziev
Ariane Lipski vs. Luana Carolina
Alexandre Pantoja vs. Askar Askarov
Roman Dolidze vs. Khadis Ibragimov
Grant Dawson vs. Nad Narimani
Joe Duffy vs. Joel Alvarez
Brett Johns vs. Montel Jackson
Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Alexander Doskalchuk
Davi Ramos vs. Arman Tsarukyan
Carlos Felipe vs. Sergei Spivak
UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Till – July 25 on Fight Island
Robert Whittaker vs. Darren Till
Mauricio Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Alex Oliveira vs. Peter Sobotta
Fabricio Werdum vs. Alexander Gustafsson
Nicolas Dalby vs. Jesse Ronson
Paul Craig vs. Gadzhimurad Antigulov
Francisco Trinaldo vs. Jai Herbert
Tom Aspinall vs. Jake Collier
Justin Tafa vs. Raphael Pessoa
Movsar Evloev vs. Mike Grundy
Bethe Correia vs. Pannie Kianzad
Nathaniel Wood vs. Umar Nurmagomedov
Ramazan Emeev vs. TBA
