A new fight will, unfortunately, determine the middleweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter 29.
UFC President Dana White told TMZ Sports that The Ultimate Fighter season 29 middleweight finalist Tresean Gore has injured his knee and is out of the finale. Replacing him will be the man he defeated in the semifinals, Gilbert Urbina.
“Tresean Gore is injured. It looks like his meniscus,” White said. “I think a lot of people figured that this kid could win it. You know, obviously a great fight with him and Bryan Battle. Gore is out, probably gonna be out for 6 months. Now, Bryan Battle will be facing Gilbert Urbina.”
White did say that Gore will get a fight inside of the UFC once his knee heals up.
Battle (5-1) defeated Kemran Lachinov in the Quarter-finals and then submitted Andre Petroski via guillotine choke in the Semi-finals.
Urbina (6-1) defeated Michael Gillmore in the Quart-finals before getting knocked out in the Semi-Finals.
This is not a rare occurrence, as there have been a few other instances where a fighter that was knocked out of the tournament fought in the finals. For example, Roxanne Modafferi in season 26 replaced Sijara Eubanks and Ryan Hall in season 22 replaced Saul Rodgers in the finals.
UFC Vegas 35 will take place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, NV, with Edson Barboza and Giga Chikadze headlining the event.
The August 28 fight card now includes the following reported bouts:
- Edson Barboza vs. Giga Chikadze
- Ricky Turcios vs. Brady Hiestand
- Bryan Battle vs. Gilbert Urbina
- Kevin Lee vs. Daniel Rodriguez
- Gerald Meerschaert vs. Makhmud Muradov
- Pat Sabatini vs. Jamall Emmers
- Dustin Jacoby vs. Darren Stewart
- JJ Aldrich vs. TBD
- Alessio Di Chirico vs. Aliaskhab Khizriev
- Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Antônio Braga Neto
- Sam Alvey vs. Wellington Turman
