A promising light heavyweight fight was the victim of a last minute cancellation at UFC Vegas 80 on Saturday.
Originally booked as the featured preliminary card bout of the Fight Night event, Philipe Lins vs. Ion Cutelaba was scratched at the eleventh hour, the result of Lins withdrawing due to medical issues.
UFC officials announced the news during the UFC Vegas 80 broadcast, noting they had waited til the last moment to reveal the news in the hopes the fight would remain intact. The Underground’s John Morgan was first to report news of the change.
While the exact nature of Philipe Lins’ withdrawal was not announced, the UFC Vegas 80 broadcast team including Paul Felder and Daniel Cormier speculated that the issue might be mental. The pullout is the second last-minute withdrawal for Lins in roughly a year; he has also seen numerous fights fall through since arriving in the UFC from the PFL a few years back.
UFC Vegas 80 moves forward with ten fights as a result, some of which are already in the books. The full card breaks down as follows:
- Grant Dawson vs. Bobby Green
- Joe Pyfer vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan
- Alex Morono vs. Joaquin Buckley
- Drew Dober vs. Ricky Glenn
- Alexander Hernandez vs. Bill Algeo
- Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Diana Belbita
- Aori Qileng vs. Johnny Muñoz Jr.
- Kanako Murata vs. Vanessa Demopoulos
- Nate Maness vs. Mateus Mendonca
- Montana De La Rosa vs. JJ Aldrich
