The stacked UFC 296 event this weekend has suffered a late blow with the news that Ian Garry is out of his main card fight with Vicente Luque due to falling ill during fight week.
“I know it’s out there. There’s some speculation that Ian Garry and Luque is off. It is true. It is.” Dana White confirmed in a video on X. “Ian Garry started with the flu that turned into pneumonia. So that fight is off and is not happening.”
Garry has since confirmed the news in a brief conversation with MMAfighting.com’s Ariel Helwani.
“I have pneumonia,” Garry said. “They tried everything to help me. In the end, UFC doctor said there’s no chance I can fight. The UFC doctor made the call. This annoys me more than anyone. I want to fight. It’s my favorite thing to do.”
With there being only a few days until fight night there’s no indication at this stage that the UFC are planning an alternative opponent for Luque, so it could be that they will look to boost a fight from the prelims to the pay-per-view portion of the event.
Usually the featured prelim stays in place, which would likely rule out a fight between Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell moving up, but other options include Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa, Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher and Casey O’Neill vs. Ariane Lipski.
Despite the disappointment of the late cancellation the main card remains strong, headlined by a welterweight title fight between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington, with a flyweight title fight between Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval serving as the co-main event, while Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson and Paddy Pimblett vs. Tony Ferguson are on-board too.
