The bad luck continues for “Raw Dawg.”
Tuesday, Brandon Royval (14-6 MMA, 6-2 UFC) announced he’s out of UFC Fight Night 216 and his scheduled bout vs. Amir Albazi (15-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC), previously expected to take place Dec. 17 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Royval, 30, revealed he recently broke his wrist during training and thus won’t be able to compete as planned. He added it was the first time in his career he’s withdrawn from a bout.
“Heartbroken to say that I will not be competing on Dec 17th,” Royval wrote on Instagram. “Training mma is always intense and I’ve competed many times with injuries, actually most of my ufc career. Last week after a practice I was feeling a pain in my wrist. After a few days of the deformity, bruising and the pain not going away, I went to the doctors where they determined I broke my wrist. Thankfully I won’t need surgery, but I will not be recovered in enough time to compete. This is the first time despite many injuries, I’ve ever had to pull out of a mma fight and couldn’t navigate my camp around it. I’m super sad but this won’t change that I’ll have the belt by the end of 2023.”
The cancellation marks his second, following an October fight week cancellation when then-opponent Askar Askarov had an awry weight cut and withdrew.
Albazi also has struggled to have fights follow through. In his most recent eight bookings, only two have actually occurred. It is unclear at this time whether or not he’ll remain on the Dec. 17 card.
With the addition, the UFC Fight Night 216 lineup includes:
- Jared Cannonier vs. Sean Strickland
- Damir Ismagulov vs. Arman Tsarukyan
- Amir Albazi vs. TBA
- Drew Dober vs. Bobby Green
- Julian Marquez vs. Deron Winn
- Vitor Petrino vs. TBA
- Sergey Morozov vs. Journey Newson
- Albert Duraev vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk
- Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Michael Morales
- Rafa Garcia vs. Hayisaer Maheshate
- Saidyokub Kakhramonov vs. Said Nurmagomedov
- Cheyanne Vlismas vs. Cory McKenna
- Alex Caceres vs. Julian Erosa
- David Dvorak vs. Manel Kape
- Jake Matthews vs. Matthew Semelsberger
