On Saturday night, UFC Stockholm takes place as it is scheduled to showcase six of the top light heavyweights in the promotion in its final three bouts. Well, at least that was originally the case as Ilir Latifi is no longer going to be able to make the walk.
The UFC released a statement Thursday that Sweden’s Latifi was forced out of his bout with Volkan Oezdemir due to injury.
“Due to a back injury, Ilir Latifi has been forced to withdraw from his Saturday UFC Fight Night bout against Volkan Oezdemir.” The statement read.
“The bout will not be replaced, and the card at Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe will proceed with 12 bouts. UFC Fight Night, which is headlined by the light heavyweight bout between Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Smith, airs live on ESPN+.”
For the No. 9 ranked UFC contender in Latifi, this was set to be his first time in action since December 2018 at UFC 232 when he suffered a two-fight win streak-snapping unanimous decision loss to Corey Anderson.
His would-be opponent in the former title challenger, Oezdemir would also be looking to rebound after losing a very close fight to Dominick Reyes in March.
As for the rest of the card as a whole, it should look like the following assuming everything remains intact after tomorrows weigh-ins.
Main Card (ESPN+, 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST)
- Light Heavyweight – 205lbs: Alexander Gustafsson vs. Anthony Smith
- Light Heavyweight: Jimi Manuwa vs. Aleksandar Rakić
- Featherweight: Makwan Amirkhani vs. Chris Fishgold
- Lightweight – 155lbs: Damir Hadžović vs. Christos Giagos
- Featherweight: Daniel Teymur vs. Sung Bin Jo
Prelims (ESPN 2, 10:00 AM EST / 7:00 AM PST)
- Bantamweight – 135lbs: Tonya Evinger vs. Lina Länsberg
- Lightweight: Stevie Ray vs. Leonardo Santos
- Lightweight: Nick Hein vs. Frank Camacho
- Featherweight: Bea Malecki vs. Eduarda Santana
- Light Heavyweight: Darko Stošić vs. Devin Clark
- Lightweight: Joel Alvarez vs. Danilo Belluardo
- Welterweight – 170lbs: Rostem Akman vs. Sergey Khandozhko
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/30/2019