This weekend, UFC Pittburgh goes down with a collection of some scrappy fights headlined by Luke Rockhold and David Branch. Unfortunately, there will be one less fight we can look forward to. Thiago Alves had to pull out of his fight with Mike Perry according to MMA Fighting. Right now the reasons are undisclosed, however Alves does live in Florida and he and his family could have been affected by the storm. This was something Perry was worried about, so he left a week earlier as a resident of Florida himself. A recent update from Ariel Helwani seems to confirm it was storm related complications.

“Thiago [Alves] had to stay behind and help his family and make sure everybody was okay, and things like that, that’s what he had to do. He’ll get here, I’m sure. He’s a fighter, he’s a survivor, I’m sure he’ll make it. But he ain’t going to survive Saturday night.” – Mike Perry speaking about Thiago Alvez on Monday’s The MMA Hour.

Mike Perry’s quote is ironic in hindsight, since Alves was not able to make it to the fight after all, but it’s great news that everything is ok with him and his family. Not all hope is lost regarding Perry fighting on this weekend’s card either. There is still time to find a replacement for Thiago Alves. After all, the opponent doesn’t matter to Perry even though he was looking forward to challenging himself against Alves.

“I think the fight night itself — it doesn’t matter who it is — that’s going to progress my career, because I’m going to show up, I’m going to perform, I’m going to entertain. I’m always going to be entertaining. And Thiago [Alves] just happens to be, to me and to many other people, a legend. The champ calls him the original welterweight, and that’s what he is, man. Thiago is a beast, and I get to prove more and more each time. The opponents keep getting better, and after I smash him, I should get a top-five opponent.”

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 9/13/2017.