UFC Fight Night: Kape vs. Almabayev has been hit with another cancellation. The preliminary card bout between John Castaneda and Douglas Silva de Andrade has been called off, the promotion confirmed on Friday.
Originally scheduled as a bantamweight contest, the fight was later moved to a 140-pound catchweight. Both fighters successfully weighed in during Friday’s weigh-in window, but neither participated in the ceremonial faceoffs.
UFC officials revealed to MMA Junkie that the fight was cancelled because Silva de Andrade (29-6 MMA, 7-6 UFC) did not receive medical clearance to compete against Castaneda (21-7 MMA, 4-3 UFC).
Neither fighter has publicly addressed the cancellation at this time.
This cancellation came just hours after another preliminary bout was scrapped due to weight management issues involving Luana Carolina, who was set to face Montana De La Rosa in a women’s flyweight matchup.
Despite these setbacks, the UFC Fight Night 253 event will continue with 10 scheduled fights.
Manel Kape (20-7 MMA, 6-3 UFC) will square off against Asu Almabayev (21-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in the main event, with the 5-round headliner potentially having title implications for the winner. Kape was won 5 of his last 6 at 125 pounds, whereas Almabayev has had his hand raised after all 4 of his Octagon appearances to date.
Middleweights Cody Brundage (10-6 MMA, 4-5 UFC) and Julian 'The Cuban Missile Crisis' Marquez meet in the co-main event and both fighters will likely be feeling under immense pressure ahead of the fight. Brundage has only won twice in his last 7 outings, while Marquez has been knocked out 3 times in a row.
Check out the full revised fight card below:
MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
- Manel Kape vs. Asu Almabayev
- Cody Brundage vs. Julian Marquez
- Nasrat Haqparast vs. Esteban Ribovics
- Austen Lane vs. Mario Pinto
- Hyder Amil vs. William Gomis
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 4:30 p.m. ET)
- Danny Barlow vs. Sam Patterson
- Chepe Mariscal vs. Ricardo Ramos
- JJ Aldrich vs. Andrea Lee
- Lucas Almeida vs. Danny Silva
- Charles Johnson vs. Ramazan Temirov
