This Saturday’s UFC 296 card has taken a sizeable hit, as the hotly anticipated welterweight showdown between Ireland’s Ian Garry and Brazil’s Vincente Luque is off.
UFC President and CEO Dana White announced the news on Wednesday, confirming what had already been speculated on by many. Garry raised eyebrows when he opted to sit out Wednesday’s media day, with only opponent Luque facing the press.
Per White’s announcement, Garry took ill — with the situation taking a turn for the worse.
“I know it’s out there, there’s some speculation that Ian Garry and [Vicente] Luque is off. It is true, it is,” stated White in a short video message on social media. “Ian Garry started with the flu, that turned into pneumonia. So that fight is off, it is not happening, it is true.”
— danawhite (@danawhite) December 14, 2023
Garry has been public enemy number one of late, drawing fire from everyone from Sean Strickland to Brendan Allen. The former attacked Garry over claims his wife was a WAG, while the latter disliked Ian Garry fighting a former teammate in Vicente Luque.
After being the target of a parody video by Tyler Cassidy (formerly Youtube star Krispy Kreme/Froggy Fresh), Garry would put out his own video addressing his “haters” ahead of UFC 296. It appears the haters will have more ammunition now, regardless of the fact that Garry is seriously ill.
With the loss of Ian Garry vs. Vicente Luque, Saturday’s UFC 296 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada moves forward with the following match-ups:
- Leon Edwards (c) vs. Colby Covington — for the UFC welterweight championship
- Alexandre Pantoja (c) vs. Brandon Royval — for the UFC flyweight championship
- Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
- Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett
- Josh Emmett vs. Bryce Mitchell
- Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
- Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
- Casey O’Neill vs. Ariane Lipski
- Alonzo Menifield vs. Dustin Jacoby
- Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Cody Durden
- Andre Fili vs. Lucas Almeida
- Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev
- Randy Brown vs. Muslim Salikhov
