A women’s strawweight division attraction between Jessica Penne and Jodie Esquibel has been removed from tonight’s UFC Fight Night Phoenix card.
Ariel Helwani of ESPN first reported the news, but a separate report from Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting is stating that a Penne injury is why the bout was called off. It is unknown right now as to what the exact injury the fighter has suffered.
Penne did miss weight for the bout by two pounds, which may or may not have had an effect on the fights status according to Helwani.
A bantamweight division attraction between Renan Barao and Luke Sanders will now take the featured prelim spot for the ESPN+ portion of the preliminary card.
The canceled fight will also impact the historic 5,000th fight in UFC history, which was supposed to happen tonight between Kron Gracie and Alex Caceres. Unless the card undergoes any further changes, a bout between Cortney Casey and Cynthia Calvillo would serve as the historic 5,000th fight in UFC history.
UFC Fight Night Phoenix takes place tonight from the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona with Francis Ngannou and Cain Velasquez headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on ESPN.
