Ion Cutelaba has been forced out of his rematch with Magomed Ankalaev on the main card of UFC 252 this coming Saturday night after testing positive for Covid-19.
Cutelaba is now in quarantine and appears to be ok, with his manager Tiago Okamaru telling MMAfighting.com that they’ve, “Just got to make sure he doesnt get sick these next few days.”
Cutelaba’s rematch with Ankalaev came about after there first fight quickly ended in controversy when Ankalaev appeared to have rocked his opponent and was awarded a TKO stoppage, only for a still-fresh Cutelaba to furiously complain that he’d just been baiting Ankalaev by pretending to be hurt.
The rematch was then initially scheduled for UFC 249, which fell through due to the coronavirus lockdown earlier in the year.
Now there is talk that the fight could be rescheduled for August 29th, though it remains to be seen whether Cutelaba will be fit enough to compete by that stage after his illness.
With Cutelaba vs. Ankalaev being removed from it’s spot as the opening fight on the main card it now remains to be seen which fight will be moved up from the prelims to take it’s place on the pay-per-view portion of the show.
