UFC Scrambles To Find New Headliner For This Weekend’s ESPN Event In Las Vegas

The UFC is scrambling to put together a new main event for this weekend’s UFC On ESPN 71 event in Las Vegas after Amir Albazi withdrew from his previously arranged headliner with Tatsuro Taira.

That leaves the UFC with a headache less than six days out from the event, particularly since there was already a palpable lack of star power on-board for the show at the Apex facility, with the co-main event featuring a lightweight match-up between the unranked pairing of Mateusz Rebecki and Chris Duncan.

With the likes of Karol Rosa vs. Nora Cornolle, Elves Brener vs. Esteban Ribovics and Danny Silva vs. Kevin Vallejos also on the main card, the only fight with notable name value sees Neil Magny going up against Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, but both are in the twilight years of their career and have lost two of their last three bouts.

It’s not clear yet what the UFC plans to do, but it’s likely they’ll look to keep the 25-year-old Taira on the card against an alternative opponent.

Taira is actually coming off a split-decision loss to Brandon Royval back in October of last year, but had been on a six-fight winning streak prior to that and is currently ranked No.6 in the flyweight division.

“When one door closes, another opens. Let’s go have a fire,” Taira wrote on Instagram alongside a training photo as he waits to see what will happen next.