Just days after getting a replacement opponent, Kelvin Gastelum has pulled out of his UFC 273 bout.
The veteran middleweight withdrew from his bout against Dricus du Plessis on Friday after suffering an undisclosed injury. Officials with the UFC confirmed the news on Friday.
Gastelum (17-8-0) was originally scheduled to face Nassourdine Imavov at UFC 273. Visa issues resulted in Imavov being removed from the card and du Plessis was tapped to replace the up-and-comer on short notice. The UFC will not seek a replacement to step in and face du Plessis per the report.
Gastelum finds himself in desperate need of a win inside the Octagon. Going back to 2019, Gastelum is 1-5 in his last six bouts. His last victory came against Ian Heinisch at UFC 258. Despite the recent skid, Gastelum is still the #10 ranked fighter in the division as his losses have come against some of the UFC’s best including Jared Cannonier, Robert Whittaker, Jack Hermansson, Darren Till and reigning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Dricus du Plessis (16-2-0) is currently riding a four fight win streak including back-to-back wins under the UFC banner against Markus Perez and Trevin Giles. A win over Gastelum would have likely catapulted du Plessis into the middleweight top 10. For now, the South African native will have to wait for another opportunity to climb the division’s rankings.
UFC 273 is set to take place April 9 at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, FL. The event will be headlined by two big UFC title fights. Alexander Volkanovski will defend his featherweight championship against ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung while Petr Yan meets Aljamain Sterling in a highly anticipated rematch to determine the undisputed bantamweight champion.
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