Carlos Ulberg has withdrawn from his fight with Anthony Smith at UFC 303. The news was first reported by Benny P. (@Brendaman2001 via X formerly known as Twitter)
The UFC has had multiple fight cards seemingly fall apart in the last couple weeks. UFC 303 and this fight in particular has been an absolute mess. The fight was originally supposed to be Jamahal Hill vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. as was originally announced on April 19th.
Then, Khalil Rountree Jr. announced thru social media that he unintentionally consumed a banned substance, thanks to a contaminated supplement. Khalil was consequently suspended, and his fight with Hill, cancelled on May 18th.
Carlos Ulberg was then announced to be stepping in against Hill on May 23rd.
Dana White announced that Jamahal Hill was out of the fight with Ulberg on June 13th (via Instagram). With Hill later revealing that his withdraw was thanks to two tears in his meniscus, a sprained ACL and a Baker’s cyst. White announced in the same video that Anthony Smith would be filling in for Hill against Ulberg.
And finally, on Friday, it was announced that Carlos Ulberg was out of his fight against Anthony Smith. Shortly after, Ariel Helwani announced (via X) Roman Dolidze was the replacement that was being targeted by the UFC.
Anthony Smith just fought on UFC 301 last month. The vet submitted undefeated prospect, Vitor Petrino, in the first round.
Roman Dolidze will be stepping in on about a weeks’ notice to fight Smith. Dolidze is on a two-fight skid. He was last in the octagon in February when he lost a majority decision to Nassourdine Imavov.
Of course, the original UFC 303 main event, Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler was cancelled and replaced by Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka II. The new UFC 303 scheduled for June 29th looks like:
- Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka II
- Brian Ortega vs. Diego Lopes
- Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Macy Chiasson
- Ian Machado Garry vs. Michael Page
- Anthony Smith vs. Roman Dolidze*
- Cub Swanson vs. Andre Fili
- Michelle Waterson- Gomez vs. Gillian Robertson
- Carlos Hernandez vs. Rei Tsuruya
- Joe Pyfer vs. Marc-Andre Barriault
- Ricky Simon vs. Vinicius Oliveira
- Payton Talbott vs. Yanis Ghemmouri
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Martin Buday
- Charles Jourdain vs. Jean Silva
