What a wild time to be an MMA fan.
On Wednesday afternoon, Kevin Iole broke the news that due to an injury to Jiří Procházka, he was out of his scheduled fight against former champion Glover Teixeira and had vacated his title. Also in the shocking tweet was the news that Teixeira would be declining the title fight so Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev was being promoted to the headliner and the title would be on the line.
According to Prochazka’s manager, Tim Simpson, Prochazka injured his “right shoulder while wrestling” Iole reported.
According to an official UFC statement, “UFC lightweight champion Jiří Procházka has suffered a shoulder injury that will require a significant rehabilitation period. Out of respect to the athletes and the division, Procházka has elected to vacate his title and will compete for the belt as soon as he is medically cleared. As a result, the new UFC 282 main event will see former champion and No, 2 ranked Jan Blachowicz take on surging No. 3 ranked Magomed Ankalaev for the vacant, undisputed UFC light heavyweight championship.”
This is a developing story and will be updated shortly.
Jiří Procházka injured, vacates belt, now Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev on for light heavyweight scrap