Khamzat Chimaev has been forced out of his upcoming main event fight against Leon Edwards at UFC Fight Night 185 on January 20th at Fight Island, Abu Dhabi.
As yet there’s no confirmation as to why Chimaev has withdrawn from the fight, but it’s now the second time the fight has been nixed after the original date on December 19th was scratched due to Edwards still suffering from the after-effects of Covid.
With Chimaev out, Edwards has wished him well, but also indicated that he still wants to remain on the UFC Fight Night 185 event if at all possible.
“Rest up Khamzat, i’m sure ill see you soon,” Edwards wrote on Twitter. “But I want to fight January 20th on the island @danawhite @seanshelby @ufc lets make it happen.”
It’s understandable that ‘Rocky’ would want to get back into the mix as soon as possible as he’s now been out of action for well over a year-and-a-half for a variety of reasons, which has stolen some of the momentum from his current eight-fight winning streak.
It remains to be seen whether the UFC will choose to do that though, or will prefer to just reschedule the fight with Chimaev to a later date since UFC Fight Night 185 does already have a few fights that could serve as the main event at a push, with the likes of Michael Chiesa vs. Neil Magny, Matt Brown vs. Carlos Condit and Pedro Munhoz vs. Jimmie Rivera already scheduled for the show.
