A middleweight fight expected to kick off the UFC Sao Paulo main card on Saturday was cancelled at the 11th hour.
During the preliminary card broadcast, right ahead of what would have been the featured prelim, UFC broadcasters announced that Rodolfo Vieira vs. Armen Petrosyan had been pulled from the event. That, as the result of illness suffered on the part of Petrosyan, who reportedly became ill in the backstage area of the arena.
While the broadcast speculated about food poisoning or nerves, no clear cause has been revealed for Petrosyan’s ailment. The Armenian had been sitting on a two-fight win streak heading into his fight with highly-decorated submission ace Rodolfo Vieira.
UFC Sao Paulo took a number of hits in the build-up to the event, and lost a lightweight match-up between Vinc Pichel and prospect Ismael Bonfim on Friday when Bonfim missed weight for the fight.
Elves Brener vs. Kaynan Kruschewsky will now kick off the Fight Night event’s main card.
Already underway, UFC Sao Paulo is moving forward with the following line-up:
- Jailton Almeida vs. Derrick Lewis
- Gabriel Bonfim vs. Nicolas Dalby
- Rodrigo Nascimento vs. Don’Tale Mayes
- Caio Borralho vs. Abus Magomedov
- Elves Brener vs. Kaynan Kruschewsky
- Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
- Vitor Petrino vs. Modestas Bukauskas
- Angela Hill vs. Denise Gomes
- Eduarda Moura vs. Montserrat Ruiz
- Kauê Fernandes vs. Marc Diakiese
