UFC Fight Night 212 has lost a fight on the main card the day before the event.
Due to weight-cutting issues for Askar Askarov (14-1-1 MMA, 3-1-1 UFC), his flyweight bout against Brandon Royval (14-6 MMA, 4-2 UFC) has canceled. UFC play-by-play announcer Brendan Fitzgerald, acting as emcee at the official weigh-ins, made the announcement just before the start of the proceedings at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
UFC Fight Night 212, which takes place Saturday at the same venue and streams on ESPN+, will go on with 11 fights. The bantamweight fight between Raphael Assuncao (27-9 MMA, 11-6 UFC) and Victor Henry (22-5 MMA, 1-0 UFC) will move up to to the main card from the prelims.
Askarov, from Dagestan, missed weight in March 2021 for his fight at UFC 259 against Joseph Benavidez. He weighed in at 127 pounds for that fight and lost a percentage of his purse after his unanimous decision win.
In March, he lost for the first time in his pro career when Kai Kara-France upset him in Ohio. Kara-France got an interim title shot with the win, and Askarov went back to the drawing board.
The drawing board was supposed to start with Alex Perez in July, but Askarov pulled out of that fight. Now he’s on hold again after the weight issues for the Royval fight.
Royval posted on Twitter ahead of the official weigh-ins to say that he had heard Askarov was going to miss weight – and that the Royval offer of a catchweight was declined.
“Woke up at 127… before I started the weight cut I heard my opponents not going to make weight,” Royval posted. “They turned down a catch weight, so it looks like the fight is off. Heartbroken but thank you @tylermintonnutrition for another easy weight cut 🙏🏽 we stay professional on our end. 🥩🐶”
Woke up at 127… before I started the weight cut I heard my opponents not going to make weight. They turned down a catch weight, so it looks like the fight is off. Heartbroken but thank you @tylermintonnutrition for another easy weight cut 🙏🏽 we stay professional on our end. 🥩🐶
— Brandon (@brandonroyval) October 14, 2022
Royval has won back-to-back fights after consecutive losses to current interim flyweight champion Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja. In January, he took a split decision from Rogerio Bontorin to get back in the win column, and in May he choked out Matt Schnell and won a $50,000 bonus for Fight of the Night.
With the change, the UFC Fight Night 212 lineup now includes:
MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
- Alexa Grasso vs. Viviane Araujo
- Jonathan Martinez vs. Cub Swanson
- Raphael Assuncao vs. Victor Henry
- Dusko Todorovic vs. Jordan Wright
- Misha Cirkunov vs. Alonzo Menifield
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET)
- Brandon Davis vs. Mana Martinez
- Jacob Malkoun vs. Nick Maximov
- Lucas Alexander vs. Joanderson Brito
- Sam Hughes vs. Piera Rodriguez
- Tatsuro Taira vs. CJ Vergara
- Mike Jackson vs. Pete Rodriguez
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 212.