UFC 154 has suffered a blow just hours before the event is set to start in Montreal with a main card bout between Nick Ring and Costa Philippou being scrapped due to illness.
“After falling ill following Friday’s weigh in, middleweight Nick Ring has been pulled from his UFC 154 bout against Costa Philippou,” UFC.com reports. “There will be no replacement opponent for Philippou, and tonight’s card will proceed as scheduled with 12 fights. Moving to the main card will be the lightweight fight between Mark Bocek and Rafael dos Anjos.”
Ring had successfully made weight for the bout, coming in at 184lbs and sporting what announcer Joe Rogan declared as “a sweet moustache”, but it’s unclear at this stage whether it was a bug or a tough weigh-cut that lead to his decision not to fight.
Whatever the case, his opponent was understandably disheartened that he won’t have the chance to compete tonight in the Octagon.
“Bad news guys!” Philippou wrote on Twitter. “My fight got cancelled… Nick got sick and he can’t fight. Needless to say Im disappointed that I wont be fighting tonight. I trained hard and was looking forward to giving everyone a show. Next time.”
