Ovince Saint Preux has been forced to withdraw from his UFC Fight Night 242 bout with Ryan Spann on Saturday night due to an undisclosed illness.
The UFC brass has reportedly decided not to seek a replacement opponent for Spann, so the event will instead just proceed with a 12-fight card instead.
The 41-year-old Saint Preux had been heading into the fight off a split-decision win over Kennedy Nzechukwu in March. However, the veteran had lost three of his four fights before that, and concerningly they were all stoppage defeats, having been TKO’d by Jamahal Hill and KO’d by both Tanner Boser and Philipe Lins.
As for the 33-year-old Spann, he had been coming into the fight in a tough spot, having lost his last three fights in a row.
Spann had suffered a 1st round submission loss to Nikita Krylov last year and then came out on the wrong end of a split-decision verdict against Anthony Smith, while he was then TKO’d by Bogdan Guskov in April.
OSP vs. Spann’s removal from Saturday night’s event doesn’t change the main card order as it was scheduled to be the main fight on the preliminary card. As such the show still proceeds with a headlining fight between Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady, while Jessica Andrade vs. Natalia Silva serves as the co-main event.
