There’s been a late change to this weekend’s UFC On ESPN 69 line-up, with Ricky Simon now set to fight short-notice replacement Cameron Smotherman after Charles Jourdain failed a pre-fight medical.
Jourdain had been heading into Saturday night’s fight with an eye injury that requires surgery, and that led to him failing his pre-fight medical.
“It is with deep sorrow that I announce my first withdrawal from my fight in 15 UFC appearances,” Jourdain said on social media. “Unfortunately, I was not medically cleared due to a condition requiring surgical intervention. I trust this is part of a greater plan and I’m committed to returning stronger.”
Jourdain’s withdrawal opens up a spot for the 27-years-old Smotherman to step in on just a few days notice as he looks to bounce back from a unanimous decision loss to Serhiy Sidey just five weeks ago.
However, Smotherman did emerge victorious in his UFC debut back in October of last year, defeating Jake Hadley by unanimous decision to take his overall career record to 12-5 so far.
Smotherman will be going up against a seasoned veteran in the 32-year-old Simon, who even holds a win over current bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili earlier in his 9-5 UFC run.
Simon did go through a rough spell not so long ago that saw him lose three fights in a row, but he bounced back with a KO win over Javid Basharat earlier this year.
Simon vs. Smotherman will appear on the preliminary card of this weekend’s UFC On ESPN 69 event, which will be headlined by a welterweight fight between Kamaru Usman and Joaquin Buckley.
