Aiemann Zahabi has revealed that he won’t be able to compete on the UFC’s final event of 2020 on Saturday night after testing positive for Covid-19.
Zahabi, brother of esteemed MMA coach Firas Zahabi, had been set to fight Drako Rodriguez on the prelims of the card, but he received a positive test prior to flying to Las Vegas for the event and so he will be unable to fight.
“It’s heartbreaking for me not to be there fight week in Vegas but thankfully my covid 19 symptoms haven’t been too bad so far,” Zahabi stated on Instagram. “Wishing you all love and safety during this pandemic.”
The 33-year-old Zahabi hasn’t fought since a decision loss to Vince Morales back in May of last year, while his previous fight before that dates back as far as UFC 217 in November of 2017, where he was KO’d by Ricardo Ramos.
With Zahabi now out of Saturday’s fight, it’s too late for the UFC to find a replacement to keep Rodriguez on the card.
However, in the mean time, the UFC has found a stand-in for Rick Glenn, who pulled out of his fight against Carlton Minus for undisclosed reasons earlier in the week.
Now Christian Giagos will step in to fight Minus instead, meaning that there’s still 14 fights scheduled for the UFC’s end-of-year event tomorrow night, which will be headlined by Stephen Thompson vs. Geoff Neal.
