UFC 273: Marcin Tybura ill, fight with Jairzinho Rozenstruik canceled

Hours after Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Marcin Tybura successfully weighed in on Friday morning, their heavyweight fight at UFC 273 has now been canceled.

The UFC announced Tybura was removed from the lineup after falling ill with an undisclosed illness. Rozenstruik vs. Tybura was scheduled for the preliminary portion of the pay-per-view event, which is now down to 12 fights as a result of the cancelation.

Rozenstruik and Tybura were originally expected to fight at UFC Vegas 49 this past February, but that was also canceled for undisclosed reasons. There is no word yet on whether the pairing will remain intact for another event.

‘Bigi Boy’ has since responded to the cancellation and sent well wishes to his would-be opponent in a video shared on Instagram.

“Marcin is sick, there is nothing we can do,” said Rozenstruik. “Just wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully we see him next time around. For now, I talked to the UFC discussing what the available options are and you guys will hear soon.”

Rozenstruik has not fought since UFC 266, where he lost to Curtis Blaydes via unanimous decision. The No. 8 ranked heavyweight contender has alternated between wins and losses in recent years, with knockouts of Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos and Augusto Sakai among his highlights.

Tybura hoped to return to the win column following a unanimous decision loss to Alexander Volkov at UFC 267 last October. The Polish fighter was previously on a five-fight win streak, which included ‘Performance of the Night’ awarded finishes of Greg Hardy and Walt Harris in his most recent Octagon appearances.

UFC 273 takes place on Saturday, April 9, at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. Alexander Volkanovski defends his featherweight championship against Chan Sung Jung, better known as ‘The Korean Zombie’ in the headliner. A highly anticipated bantamweight championship rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan serves as the co-headliner.