Curtis Blaydes tests positive for COVID-19, UFC on ESPN 18 main event scrapped

LAS VEGAS – Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 18 main event is off – just a day before the fight, and minutes before the fighters were set to weigh in.

Curtis Blaydes (14-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) has tested positive for COVID-19, which takes him out of his heavyweight fight against former title challenger Derrick Lewis (24-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC). A person with knowledge of the change confirmed the news to MMA Junkie on Friday. The news first was reported by UFC broadcast partner ESPN.

UFC on ESPN 18 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The event airs on ESPN2 and streams on ESPN+.

Although the UFC has not made a formal announcement, the new main event is expected to be a light heavyweight fight between Devin Clark (12-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) and former title challenger Anthony Smith (33-16 MMA, 8-6 UFC), which was slated for the co-main event spot.

Blaydes was looking for his fifth straight win. Most recently, he took a unanimous decision from Alexander Volkov in a June headliner in Las Vegas. He attended Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 18 virtual media day.

Lewis is on a three-fight winning streak after back-to-back losses that started with a submission setback to Daniel Cormier in a heavyweight title fight in November 2018. In August, he knocked out Aleksei Oleinik in a main event in Las Vegas.

With the change, the new UFC on ESPN 18 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD (ESPN2/ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET)

• Devin Clark vs. Anthony Smith
• Josh Parisian vs. Parker Porter
• Miguel Baeza vs. Takashi Sato
• Bill Algeo vs. Spike Carlyle

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)

• Norma Dumont vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith
• Martin Day vs. Anderson dos Santos
• Gina Mazany vs. Rachael Ostovich
• Kai Kamaka III vs. Jonathan Pearce
• Malcolm Gordon vs. Su Mudaerji
• Nate Maness vs. Luke Sanders