Unfortunate news has surfaced in regards to UFC heavyweight Stefan Struve’s fight with Ruslan Magomedov at UFC 204.

According to MMAJunkie, Magomedov was forced to pull out of the scheduled bout this week after it was revealed that he has a staph infection.

While details are pretty scarce at the present time, it could be quite some time before Magomdeov returns to the Octagon depending on the severity of his staph infection.

Magomedov would have entered the fight on a 9-fight win streak that has seen him go 3-0 in the UFC as well. His only loss came in his 6th professional MMA fight when he was TKOd back in 2011.

The fight was expected to be a big fight for both men given the fact that Stefan Struve is currently ranked #13 on the UFC’s official heavyweight rankings, and Ruslan Magomedov is ranked at #12 on the UFC’s official heavyweight rankings.

Fortunately, given that the fight is just under a month away, the UFC is currently searching for a replacement opponent for Struve. While the majority of the UFC’s top 15 heavyweights already have fights set, #14 ranked Francis Ngannou. Ngannou is fresh off a 1st round KO over Bojan Mihajlović, making it 7 in a row for ‘The Predator’.

Assuming the UFC is able to find a replacement for Struve in time, he will enter the fight on a win after he knocked out Bigfoot Silva earlier this year with a beautiful elbow.

Stay tuned for updates as they become available!