Light heavyweight veteran and former interim title hopeful Ovince Saint Preux has been forced out of this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 97 due to illness.
“OSP” was to have faced former LFA standout Ryan Spann at the event, set for the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, on Wednesday, promotion officials announced that the bout was off.
“Due to illness, Ovince Saint Preux has been removed from his light heavyweight bout with Ryan Spann. As a result, this bout has been cancelled from this weekend’s card,” a brief statement on the company’s website revealed.
The nature of the illness in this instance has not been revealed.
It’s the second hit the card has taken in the days leading up to the event, as Alessandro Costa dropped out of his flyweight fight with Matt Schnell due to injury. That fight, however, was salvaged, with Cody Durden stepping in, and the bout moved up a weight class to bantamweight.
Saint Preux, 41, was looking to build off a split decision win over Kennedy Nzechukwu back in March. OSP joined the UFC in 2013, after turning pro in 2008 and competing for Strikeforce starting in 2010. He boasts a record of 27-17, with wins over Corey Anderson, Shogun Rua, and Rafael Cavalcante, among others.
UFC Vegas 97 now moves forward with the following match-ups:
- Gilbert Burns vs. Sean Brady
- Jéssica Andrade vs. Natália Silva
- Steve Garcia vs. Kyle Nelson
- Matt Schnell vs. Cody Durden
- Trevor Peek vs. Yanal Ashmouz
- Rong Zhu vs. Chris Padilla
- Isaac Dulgarian vs. Brendon Marotte
- Felipe dos Santos vs. André Lima
- Yi Zha vs. Gabriel Santos
- Jaqueline Amorim vs. Vanessa Demopoulos
- Andre Petroski vs. Dylan Budka
- Žygimantas Ramaška vs. Nathan Fletcher
