With Ian Heinisch being forced to withdraw from his UFC 250 bout with Gerald Meerschaert, Anthony Ivy steps up on short notice as a middleweight replacement.
Ian Heinisch has been forced to withdraw from his bout this weekend at UFC 250 against Gerald Meerschaert. Reason being, one of Heinisch’s corner members tested positive for COVID-19, according to a report from TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter. Due to the forced withdrawful of Heinisch, Anthony Ivy will step up at short notice to fight Meerschaert on Saturday. The UFC 250 event will be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Raphael Marinho first reported the news that Ivy would be on the replacement on Twitter.
Meerschaert (31-12 MMA, 7-4 UFC) won his most recent outing back in March against Deron Winn via third-round submission at UFC 248. A UFC veteran dating back to 2016, Meerschaert has seven wins in the UFC — with all of his UFC victories ending inside the distance. The 32-year-old has won two of his last three bouts.
Ivy (8-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will be making his UFC and middleweight debut. The 30-year-old is currently on a five-fight win streak and has fought for promotions like Bellator, LFA and WXC MMA. In his most recent outing back in September, Ivy finished fellow prospect Willis Black via fourth-round TKO. All of Ivy’s wins has ended inside the distance and Ivy has only been past the second round one time. Ivy was slated to fight on the Dana White’s Contender Series, but now is stepping up on short notice. The same scenario happened to Brandon Royval last weekend, who ended up going on to submit Tim Elliott and win a $50k Fight of the Night bonus.
The bout is currently set take place on the UFC 250 preliminary card, which will air live on ESPN. Whether the bout order will change further is TBD.
Update, 6PM ET: Heinisch is continuing to cut weight in the hopes his cornerman’s test was a false positive.
Developing: The cornerman for Heinisch that tested positive will be tested again to determine whether the test was a false positive.
Should subsequent tests come back negative, Heinisch could still be cleared to compete Saturday.
Heinisch is continuing to cut weight and train. https://t.co/D5LxnNAi8u
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) June 4, 2020
