Li Jingliang has withdrawn from his upcoming fight against Michael Chiesa at UFC 287 on April 8th in Miami, Florida after suffering an injury.
The 34-year-old Jingliang first announced the news on Chinese social media site Douyin, stating that he has a back injury that may require surgery, leaving him unable to compete at the UFC 287 show in two weeks time.
Jingliang had been heading into the fight with a somewhat patchy recent record, having been alternating between wins and losses during his past six fights.
During that time he earned two TKO wins over Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and Muslim Salikhov as well as a KO finish against Santiago Ponzinibbio, but also suffered two decision losses against Neil Magny and Daniel Rodriguez as well as a submission loss to Khamzat Chimaev.
As things stand the UFC intends to try to find a replacement opponent for the 35-year-old Chiesa, who hasn’t fought since suffering back-to-back defeats against Vicente Luque and Sean Brady in 2021.
Prior to that Chiesa had been on a four-fight winning streak, picking up a submission win over Carlos Condit followed by a trio of decision victories against Diego Sanchez, Rafael dos Anjos and Neil Magny.
UFC 287’s main card currently remains intact despite this injury call-off and is headlined by a middleweight title rematch between new champion Alex Perez and the man he dethroned, Israel Adesanya, while Gilbert Burns goes up against Jorge Masvidal in the co-main event.
