UFC Fight Night 253 needs a new main event.
The highly anticipated flyweight battle between Brandon Royval and Manel Kape will no longer take place March 1 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Royval (17-7 MMA, 7-3 UFC) announced Wednesday his withdrawal from the five-round bout vs. Kape (20-7 MMA, 6-3 UFC) due to injury. Royval did not go into further detail but said he would explain more in the coming days.
“Unfortunately I’m going to have to pull out of my fight, I’m sorry to Manel Kape and my fans,” Royval wrote on Instragram. “I’m facing an injury that has me questioning when I’ll be able to train again. This is absolutely a fight I think needs to happen for the flyweight division but as of right now competing month has been ill advised. Love y’all and I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I’ll have more details on my YouTube this week.”
The fight between Royval and Kape was considered by many to be a title eliminator, with both men aiming to build momentum and earn their crack at champ Alexandre Pantoja.
It’s unclear if the promotion will find a new opponent for Kape or if he will be moved to a later date.
With the cancellation, the UFC Fight Night 253 lineup includes:
- Manel Kape vs. TBA
- Cody Brundage vs. Julian Marquez
- Hyder Amil vs. William Gomis
- Nasrat Haqparast vs. Esteban Ribovics
- Austen Lane vs. Mario Pinto
- Asu Almabayev vs. Allan Nascimento
- Luana Carolina vs. Montana De La Rosa
- Danny Barlow vs. Sam Patterson
- JJ Aldrich vs. Andrea Lee
- Charles Johnson vs. Ramazan Temirov
- John Castaneda vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade
- Chepe Mariscal vs. Ricardo Ramos
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