COVID-19 takes Belal Muhammad out of Dhiego Lima bout at UFC Fight Night 183

A welterweight bout expected to be the featured fight on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 183 preliminary card has been scrapped.

Belal Muhammad (17-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) has tested positive for COVID-19 and is out of his fight against Dhiego Lima (15-7 MMA, 4-5 UFC). MMA Junkie confirmed the fight’s removal with Muhammad on Tuesday, and he subsequently tweeted news of it. The bout’s removal first was reported by MMAFighting.com. The bout is expected to be rebooked in early 2021.

UFC Fight Night 183 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card streams on ESPN+.

Woke up yesterday feeling like crap got tested and i was positive for covid sucks but I’ll be back

— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) December 15, 2020

Muhammad was looking to build on a three-fight winning streak that started with a decision over Curtis Millender at UFC 236 in April 2019. Later that year, he picked up a bonus-winning submission of Takashi Sato. In April, a fight with Lyman Good was delayed due to COVID-19 postponements, but he made good when he outpointed him in June. He was supposed to fight Sean Brady on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 183 until Brady withdrew and was replaced by Lima.

Lima has a three-fight winning streak of his own. After a first-round knockout of Chad Laprise at UFC 231 snapped a three-fight skid, Lima picked up back-to-back split decisions over Court McGee and Luke Jumeau in 2019. He was set to take on Alex Morono in February at UFC 247, but had to withdraw with an injury. The cancellation of the Muhammad fight will leave him without a fight in 2020.

With the removal, the UFC Fight Night 183 lineup now includes:

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

• Stephen Thompson vs. Geoff Neal
• Jose Aldo vs. Marlon Vera
• Michel Pereira vs. Khaos Williams
• Rob Font vs. Marlon Moraesv
• Greg Hardy vs. Marcin Tybura
• Gillian Robertson vs. Taila Santos
• Alex Morono vs. Anthony Pettis

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET)

• Sijara Eubanks vs. Pannie Kianzad
• Dalcha Lungiambula vs. Karl Roberson
• Antonio Arroyo vs. Deron Winn
• Drako Rodriguez vs. Aiemann Zahabi
• Tafon Nchukwi vs. Jamie Pickett
• Cody Durden vs. Jimmy Flick
• Rick Glenn vs. Carlton Minus