One of the most highly anticipated preliminary bouts on Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 42 card has been called off.
Tracy Cortez has been removed from her women’s flyweight bout with Amanda Ribas due to a “medical issue,” the promotion announced on Friday after official weigh-ins for the event.
Both Cortez (10-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) and Ribas (11-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) successfully made weight for their matchup, which was slated to take place at Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., and air on ESPN/stream on ESPN+, but then something seemingly went wrong.
The UFC’s statement did not elaborate on the issue Cortez was dealing with, or if there are plans to reschedule the pairing with Ribas in the close or distant future.
Neither fighter has posted a statement at the time of this story.
The latest UFC on ESPN 42 lineup now includes:
MAIN CARD (ESPN/ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET)
- Stephen Thompson vs. Kevin Holland
- Bryan Barberena vs. Rafael dos Anjos
- Matheus Nicolau vs. Matt Schnell
- Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tai Tuivasa
- Roman Dolidze vs. Jack Hermansson
- Eryk Anders vs. Kyle Daukaus
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN/ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
- Niko Price vs. Phil Rowe
- Emily Ducote vs. Angela Hill
- Clay Guida vs. Scott Holtzman
- Marc Diakiese vs. Michael Johnson
- Darren Elkins vs. Jonathan Pearce
- Natan Levy vs. Genaro Valdez
- Francis Marshall vs. Marcelo Rojo
- Yazmin Jauregui vs. Istela Nunes
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 42.
