UFC 313 has lost a second fight on the day of the event, with Curtis Blaydes the most recent casualty.
Promotion officials announced on Saturday afternoon, just hours out from the card kicking off, that heavyweight Blaydes was out of his featured prelim fight with Rizvan Kuniev due to illness. The bout is the second scratched on Saturday, following Chris Gutierrez vs. John Castaneda falling through.
“Due to illness with heavyweight Curtis Blaydes and featherweight John Castaneda, their bouts have been canceled from tonight’s event,” a modified statement on the UFC’s official website reads.
The nature of Blaydes’ ailment has not been disclosed.
The UFC 313 fight card had held together on Friday, with not a single fighter missing weight at the event’s official weigh-in. Saturday has clearly been a different story.
Curtis Blaydes vs. Rizvan Kuniev had previously been scheduled for UFC Seattle two weeks ago. After being shifted to UFC 313, it’s now off entirely.
UFC 313 takes place on Saturday, March 8, 2025 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The line-up now breaks down as follows:
- Alex Pereira (c) vs. Magomed Ankalaev – for the UFC light heavyweight championship
- Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev
- Jalin Turner vs. Ignacio Bahamondes
- Amanda Lemos vs. Iasmin Lucindo
- King Green vs. Maurício Ruffy
- Joshua Van vs. Rei Tsuruya
- Brunno Ferreira vs. Armen Petrosyan
- Alex Morono vs. Carlos Leal
- Mairon Santos vs. Francis Marshall
- Djorden Ribeiro dos Santos vs. Osman Diaz
