UFC featherweight contender Zabit Magomedsharipov says he has returned home to Russia and will not compete on the August 29 card anymore.

Magomedsharipov was set to take on rival Yair Rodriguez in the main event of the UFC Fight Night event on August 29 in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Magomedsharipov was left without an opponent when Rodrguez was injured in training camp. Fighters such as Calvin Kattar offered to step up on short notice to fight him, but instead, the Russian turned his focus to getting a title shot against UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski.

But now, it doesn’t appear as though Magomedsharipov is going to fight anyone on the card at all. Taking to social media, the featherweight announced that he has returned to Russia and will not compete on August 29 after all. Here’s what he wrote on Instagram.

 

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Ас-саляму ‘аляйкум приветствую всех! Хочу сообщить, что моего боя 29 августа не будет. Родригез соскочил, из топ-5 на замену никого не предложили. Драться с теми, кто ещё ниже в рейтинге, это шаг назад. Я просил или бой за пояс или бой с каким-нибудь интересным для меня соперником с именем. Предложений не последовало, так что мы сворачиваем наш лагерь и возвращаемся в Россию. Уже второй раз подряд @ufc обламывает подготовку на завершающем этапе. Спасибо всем, кто поддерживал и ждал этого боя. Мы с командой делали все от нас зависящее @dagestan__fighter @magomedov_tiger @mansur_uchakaev_dfteam @coachmarkhenry @omar_abakarov_df @rizvan_magomedov @ricardoalmeidabjj @nickcatonemma @krepost_shamilya @aliabdelaziz000 @khasan_magomedsharipov @timurvaliev_df

A post shared by Zabit (@zabit_magomedsharipov) on Aug 8, 2020 at 10:42am PDT

Zabit Magomedsharipov: As-salamu ‘alaykum greetings to all! I want to inform you that my fight on August 29 will not be. Rodriguez jumped out of the top 5 to replace anyone. Fighting those who are even lower in the rankings is a step back. I asked for either a belt fight or a fight with some interesting opponent with a name. There were no offers, so we turn off our camp and return to Russia. For the second time in a row @ufc breaks off preparation at the final stage. Thanks to everyone who supported and waited for this fight. The team and I did our best.

It will be interesting to see what the UFC does with Magomedsharipov. The promotion may very well opt to just give him a title shot later this year, or perhaps will wait until Rodriguez is healthy and match these two up once again. But August 29 will not see him compete.

When would you like to see Zabit Magomedsharipov fight?