Poor Ovince Saint Preux. The UFC veteran has seen his hopes of a big payday this weekend take another hit after yet another opponent has had to back out of their contest. That makes three for OSP.
Initially Saint Preux was scheduled to fight former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Alexander Gustafsson. However, that fell through when ‘The Mauler’ pulled out for undisclosed reasons. Ex PFL champ Philipe Lins was drafted as a replacement. However, Lins too had to pull out.
Last week it was revealed that Antonio Trocoli would be drafted in as a late replacement for Lins. Last night the UFC announced that Trocoli was out of the match-up, too, due to visa issues.
Trocoli is a DWCS (Dana White’s Contender Series) – Brazil product. After earning his contract on that show, Trocoli served a lengthy ban for testing positive for the banned substance nandralone. After this latest issue, the UFC has voided Trocoli’s contract — releasing him from the promotion.
This leaves Saint Preux without an opponent, again. MMA Fighting reports that the UFC will try and find another replacement to keep the vet on the card.
This is just the latest withdrawal that has rocked UFC 282. The fight card was initially built around a rematch between Jiří Procházka and Glover Teixeira for the UFC light heavyweight title. However, that fell apart when Procházka vacated the title, citing the need for surgery and a long recovery.
With that fight ruined, the UFC made Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev, for the now vacated belt, the headliner.
Earlier this week, the event also saw former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler fall out of his main card fight with Santiago Ponzinibbio. Alex Morono has come in as a late replacement for that contest.
This event was also supposed to feature the ‘proper’ UFC debut of Contender Series star Bo Nickal. Only Nickal had to pull out due to injury.
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