One of the biggest fights on the UFC 205 preliminary card between Rashad Evans and Tim Kennedy has been removed from the card just days from the event in New York City.
During a pre-fight medical check, Evans MRI scan showed “irregular finding”, and although he would go on to pass follow-up tests, the New York State Athletic Commission still decided to deny him a license to fight.
“I’m disappointed,” Evans told MMAfighting.com. “I’m healthy. I don’t want anyone worrying about me. I’m fine, physically speaking. Never felt better. It’s just the commission and their rules. I guess they have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to this.”
At this stage the UFC have indicated there’s no plans in place to keep Kennedy on the star-studded line-up, although the fighter himself has been calling out the likes of Anderson Silva, Nick Diaz and Michael Bisping on social media in the hope that he can still compete on Saturday night.
That’s not completely out of the question given that Silva stepped in to fight Daniel Cormier on just a couple of days notice at UFC 200, but it does seem unlikely at thing stand.
On the UFC’s official fight card, a prelim fight between Tim Boetsch and Rafael Natal that was previously scheduled for the Fight Pass portion of the show has now been promoted to the FOX Sports 1 broadcast, where it will join Frankie Edgar Vs Jeremy Stephens, Khabib Nurmagomedov Vs Michael Johnson and Vicente Luque Vs Belal Muhammed.
