UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic goes down this weekend from Madison Square Garden, with the PPV event set to feature 13 fights across the preliminary and main cards.
Unfortunately, one of those bouts has just been confirmed to have been canceled – luckily, the UFC has already found and announced a short-notice replacement.
UFC 309 loses preliminary fight due to medical issues; debutant steps up
As confirmed only a few minutes ago by the MMA promotion, the UFC 309 preliminary card fight between featherweight prospects Lucas Almeida and David Onama has sadly been canceled.
According to the announcement post shared to the UFC website, Almeida has been forced to withdraw from the event due to ‘medical issues’ – it is currently unclear whether these issues are related to the Brazilian’s weight cutting.
Thankfully, the promotion has already found a short-notice replacement opponent in order to keep David Onama on the card.
‘The Silent Assassin’ will now take on UFC newcomer Roberto Romero, with that bout being understandably moved from 145lbs to 155lbs.
Romero is 24 years old and is from Mexico, with a professional record of 8-3-1 (three wins via KO/TKO, two via submission, and three via the judges’ scorecards) with five first-round finishes.
Onama is 4-2 in the UFC and is riding a two-fight winning streak, a finish over Gabriel Santos last Summer followed by a hard-fought decision win against Jonathan Pearce back in April.
Almeida vs Onama is the fourth fight to be removed from UFC 309, with Nikita Krylov vs Azamat Murzakanov, Carlos Prates vs Randy Brown, and Charlie Campbell vs Mauricio Ruffy also previously canceled.
UFC 309 to include a major change that could see more knockouts
Assuming that there won’t be any more last-minute cancelations, UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic will include 13 fights; all 13 of which will feature a major change that has also just been revealed.
As reported by Ariel Helwani earlier in the week, UFC 309 will see the old gloves making a return, five months after being introduced at UFC 302: Makhachev vs Poirier.
“UFC has informed the fighters competing on Saturday’s 309 card in NYC that they will be using the old gloves not the new ones introduced back in June, per multiple sources,” Helwani wrote on X, adding that the “Specific reason unclear at the moment.”
The new gloves were supposed to minimize hand injuries, cuts and most importantly eye pokes, but have proven controversial since their introduction with data suggesting that they’ve inadvertently resulted in a 10% drop in knockouts.
Back at UFC 303, Dana White himself would acknowledge that the promotion was monitoring the trend: “Let me tell you what, me and [Hunter Campbell] were looking at each other like, ‘Are these gloves f***** up?’
“Believe me, we were saying the same thing. You guys had us wondering, too … I don’t know. I think it’s just a coincidence. Hopefully.”
UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic goes down from Madison Square Garden on Saturday, November 16.
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