Two fighters have withdrawn from UFC 309 a little over a week before the event at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 16th.
First up, Azamat Murzakanov has pulled out of his preliminary card light-heavyweight fight against Nikita Krylov for undisclosed reasons.
The 35-year-old Murzakanov had been heading into the bout with a perfect 15-0 career record, including four wins in a row inside the Octagon so far.
Along the way the Russian has beaten the likes of Taton Nchuwki, Devin Clark, Dustin Jacoby and most recently KO’d Alonzo Menifield.
At this stage it’s unclear if Krylov will stay on the card as he looks to extend his current three-fight winning streak.
Meanwhile, Lucas Almeida has also withdrew from his prelim fight against David Onama for reasons that haven’t yet been disclosed.
The 33-year-old Almeida had come into this year off of back-to-back losses, but had earned a unanimous decision win over Timothy Cuamba in his only fight so far in 2024.
It remains to be seen whether Onama will remain on the card against a late replacement opponent or not.
As things stand UFC 309 is now down to 11 fights, though the main card remains intact and will be headlined by one of the biggest fights of the year as heavyweight champion Jon Jones returns to take on former divisional kingpin Stipe Miocic, while Charles Oliveira fights Michael Chandler in the co-main event.
