The Ultimate Fighting Championship has lost part of
a big fight on its upcoming pay-per-view, but the line of
interested replacements seems to be growing longer by the hour.
Per Jack
Della Maddalena (14-2) on his Instagram on Friday,
his opponent Sean Brady
for
UFC 290 has pulled out of their welterweight bout. Around the
same time, Brady posted on his own
Instagram Stories with the caption of “Day 4” with a photograph
of him receiving IV treatment with an elastic bandage wrapped
around his elbow. It is not clear at this time if the promotion
will replace Brady for this fight card, but multiple names have
already lobbied publicly for a slot on the billing or against the
Aussie at a later date.
Maddalena has strung together 14 consecutive victories since losing
a pair of fights at the very beginning of his career. Along the way
up, 13 of those 14 wins have come inside the distance, including
four inside the Octagon. The 2022 campaign for the welterweight
went swimmingly, as he wrecked Pete
Rodriguez, Ramazan
Emeev and Danny
Roberts all within one round to place himself in top
contention. A submission of Randy Brown
in February elevated him to a shot against a top-10 adversary.
Still hoping to compete on the July 8 show at the T-Mobile Arena in
Las Vegas, Maddalena issued an “open challenge” to any opponent at
170 or 185 pounds. Joaquin
Buckley called for a fight with Maddalena on Instagram,
although he suggested they meet in September at UFC 293 in
Maddalena’s home country. Per ESPN,
Kevin
Holland also raised his hand for this matchup, requesting a
175-pound catchweight, and he plans on still fighting at UFC 291
against Michael
Chiesa at the end of July.
UFC 290 will be held at the T-Mobile Arena on July 8 to conclude
the promotion’s annual International Fight Week. The main
attraction will see Alexander
Volkanovski attempt to unify his featherweight strap against
interim beltholder Yair
Rodriguez. Additionally, the co-headliner features a flyweight
championship collision as Brandon
Moreno rematches Alexandre
Pantoja. Other main card tilts include a potential middleweight
title eliminator between Robert
Whittaker and Dricus Du
Plessis, and a lightweight banger pitting Jalin
Turner against Dan Hooker.