Despite the best efforts from all involved, Kelvin Gastelum will not be competing at UFC 273.
Due to an undisclosed injury, Gastelum has been forced off the upcoming pay-per-view event against short-notice replacement Dricus du Plessis. The UFC officially announced the news on Friday evening. UFC 273 takes place at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla.
Gastelum (16-8 MMA, 11-8 UFC) was originally scheduled to meet Massourdine Imavov at the event, but due to visa issues, Imavov was unable to compete as scheduled.
The former middleweight title challenger Gastelum wanted to remain on the card and du Plessis (16-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) was shuffled from his original bout against Anthony Hernandez that was scheduled to take place on the same card.
With the removal, the UFC 273 lineup now includes:
- Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chan Sung Jung – for featherweight title
- Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan – for bantamweight title
- Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev
- Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres
- Aleksei Oleinik vs. Jared Vanderaa
- Aspen Ladd vs. Raquel Pennington
- Ian Garry vs. Darian Weeks
- Josh Fremd vs. Anthony Hernandez
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Marcin Tybura
- Mickey Gall vs. Mike Malott
- Julio Arce vs. Daniel Santos
- Mark Madsen vs. Vinc Pichel
- Kay Hansen vs. Piera Rodriguez
