Rani Yahya has been forced to withdraw against Cody Garbrandt for a second straight time.
Yahya (28-10-1 MMA, 13-4-1 UFC) is out of his UFC Fight Night 211 bout against Garbrandt (12-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC) on Oct. 1 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas for undisclosed reasons. It is unknown if Garbrandt will remain on the card.
A person with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the withdrawal after an initial report from Eurosport NL.
Garbrandt and Yahya originally were booked for UFC on ESPN 39 on July 9, but Yahya withdrew due to a neck injury. The bout was rescheduled for Oct. 1, but has been scrapped once again.
Garbrandt was set to return to 135 pounds after a failed stint at flyweight, where he was knocked out by Kai Kara-France at UFC 269 this past December. The former bantamweight champion has lost five of his past six. His lone win in that stretch was a knockout of Raphael Assuncao in June 2020.
Yahya has won two in a row. He submitted Ray Rodriguez in March 2021, then took a unanimous decision over Kyung-Ho Kang this past November.
With the change, the UFC Fight Night 211 lineup includes:
- Mackenzie Dern vs. Yan Xioanan
- Chris Daukaus vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
- Brendan Allen vs. Krzysztof Jotko
- Randy Brown vs. Francisco Trinaldo
- Ilir Latifi vs. Aleksei Oleinik
- Jessica Penne Tabatha Ricci
- Guido Cannetti vs. Randy Costa
- Chelsea Chandler vs. Julija Stoliarenko
- John Castaneda vs. Daniel Santos
- Cody Garbrandt vs. TBA
- Raoni Barcelos vs. Trevin Jones
- Jesse Ronson vs. Joaquim Silva
- Viacheslav Borshchev vs. Mike Davis
- Don Shainis vs. Sodiq Yusuff
