Three fighters have been removed by the UFC on Saturday, the day of its event, due to positive COVID-19 tests.
According to MMA Junkie, the Thiago Moises-Jalin Turner fight was taken off the card at the UFC Apex Saturday night due to “coronavirus concerns” regarding Moses. Similarly, Marcos Rogerio de Lima was pulled from Saturday’s event and his fight with Alexnader Romanov was off due to a positive COVID-19 finding.
In addition, Kevin Natividad was removed from his fight with Brian Kelleher but was replaced by Ray Rodriguez who was ready to go in the instance a fighter fell out of the spot. Notably, Kelleher’s original opponent, Ricky Sirmon pulled out of the fight due to one of his cornermen testing positive for COVID-19.
Also, earlier this week, Karol Rosa pulled out of her fight with Sijara Eubanks due to health issues unrelated to COVID-19 as she dealt with a hard weight cut that put her in the hospital
Payout Perspective:
There has to be a concern that 3 of the fighters that were at weigh-ins yesterday tested positive for COVID-19. Certainly, it is a good thing that the UFC is doing this testing but with the level of positive tests today, you have to wonder why go through with this card. There are now 7 fights on the event with no prelims now due to the lack of fights. With so many cards that the UFC is taking on in an almost weekly basis to fulfill its contractual obligations, you have to wonder about the viability to continue just to ensure the safety of the fighters. While the UFC has spearheaded the efforts to continue through this pandemic, the mounting number of positive tests calls for the UFC to perhaps slow down its events.
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