Saturday’s UFC 313 is down a fight just hours out from the card kicking off.
An illness suffered by John Castaneda, who had another fight cancelled on short notice two weeks ago when Douglas Silva de Anrade was not cleared to compete, is the culprit.
UFC officials announced the news Saturday afternoon. “Due to illness, John Castaneda has been removed from his featherweight bout with Chris Gutierrez,” a brief statement on the promotion’s website reads. “As a result, this bout has been cancelled from today’s card.”
The nature of Castaneda’s illness has not been disclosed. He stepped into the fight on short notice after Jean Matsumoto was pulled from a fight with Gutierrez to instead face Rob Font in Seattle.
Castaneda has not competed since a June 2024 loss to Daniel Marcos. As for Gutierrez, he’s been out since an August win over Quang Le.
UFC 313 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, March 8, 2025. With the cancellation of Chris Gutierrez vs. John Castaneda, the card now features the following match-ups:
- 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
- Curtis Blaydes vs. Rizvan Kuniev
- 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
