Kelvin Gastelum is no longer fighting at UFC 273.
The veteran UFC middleweight has withdrawn from his scheduled bout against Dricus du Plessis on Friday after suffering an undisclosed injury, the UFC announced.
MMA Fighting confirmed the news.
Gastelum was initially slated to fight up-and-coming contender Nassourdine Imavov at UFC 273 before visa issues forced Imavov to be scratched from the bout. Du Plessis answered the call as a short-notice replacement, however as a result of Gastelum’s withdrawal, du Plessis has also been scratched from UFC 273’s card.
Gastelum (16-8, 1 NC) remains in need of a win after losing five of his past six bouts, including a current two-fight losing streak at the hands of Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier.
Du Plessis (16-2), on the other hand, will have to wait for his chance to advance up the middleweight ranks after notching knockout wins over Markus Perez and Trevin Giles in his first two UFC bouts.
UFC 273 is set to take place April 9 at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. The card is headlined by a pair of title fights, Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chan Sung Jung and Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan, as well as a featured welterweight bout between Gilbert Burns and Khamzat Chimaev.
MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck contributed to this report.