UFC 270 has been hit by two preliminary card withdrawals just a couple of weeks before the event in Anaheim on January 22nd, with both Warlley Alves and Viviane Araujo no longer featuring on the card.
Alves had been set to fight newcomer Jack Della Maddelena in the prelims, but he has had to pull out for undisclosed reasons, leaving the UFC scrambling to find a replacement.
The 31-year-old Alves was seeking to get back to winning ways after suffering a KO loss to Jeremiah Wells back in the summer of last year, though he had secured a TKO victory over Mounir Lazzez beforehand, leaving him with an overall 8-5 record in the UFC to date.
As for Madelena, he had booked his spot in the UFC after a win on the Contender Series last year saw him take his current winning streak to ten fights and he’ll now be anxiously waiting to hear news of whether he’ll still remain on the UFC 270 card or not.
Meanwhile, Viviane Araujo is also out of UFC 270 after picking up an injury, which takes her out of her fight with Alexa Grasso.
Araujo was beaten by Kaitlyn Chookagian in her last Octagon outing, but had secured wins over Montana De La Rosa and Roxanne Modafferi prior to that, and with an overall 4-2 record in the UFC still holds the No.6 spot on the flyweight rankings.
As for Grasso, she’s coming off back-to-back wins over Ji Yeon Kim and Maycee Barber that have lifted her to the No.11 spot and it’s believed that UFC officials are on the lookout for a short-notice replacement to keep her on the card.
