The
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Azerbaijan has taken
a hit.
On Thursday, perennial middleweight contender Vettori (19-10-1)
posted on Instagram
that he would no longer be competing at
UFC Baku, also known as UFC Fight Night 280. The Italian
suffered a rib injury that does not need surgery but will prohibit
him from appearing on June 27. He was slated to face Ismail
Naurdiev (25-8) at the National Gymnastics Arena in the capital
city of Azerbaijan either as the main card opener or preliminary
headliner.
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Vettori explained, “Unfortunately I’m here to tell you that a few
days ago, I got hurt on my rib. I did an MRI and it came back today
showing that the rib is broken, so I won’t be fighting June 27. I
was really looking forward to this fight. I moved from Florida to
California for this camp. I wanted to get back to my roots, train
with Beneil
[Dariush], train with Julian for my boxing, train with Chase
for my conditioning.”
“The Italian Stallion” continued, “I was feeling good, but
sometimes s–t happens and you can’t do [anything] about it. So
yeah, now I’m going to focus on my recovery, hopefully it doesn’t
take too long, 4-to-6 weeks [until] I’m good to train again. If
they reschedule me with the same guy, great. If not, doesn’t
matter. Anybody is good for me. For everybody that supported me,
I’m thankful for that, and I promise you that I will be back.”
Still just 32 years of age—Vettori joined the UFC a decade ago—the
formerly ranked middleweight finds himself on a career-long losing
streak of four straight. This skid remains the lone time as a
professional that Vettori has dropped consecutive bouts. With his
last win, a decision over Roman
Dolidze, coming in 2023, Vettori has gone on to lose four times
on the scorecards to Jared
Cannonier, Dolidze in their rematch, Brendan
Allen and Brunno
Ferreira. It is currently unclear if the UFC will book a new
fight for Naurdiev, or preserve the pairing and reschedule it for a
later date.
UFC Baku lineup:
Rafael
Fiziev vs. Manuel
Torres – lightweight
Abusupiyan
Magomedov vs. Michal
Oleksiejczuk – middleweight
Sharabutdin
Magomedov vs. Michel
Pereira – middleweight
Asu
Almabayev vs. Charles
Johnson – flyweight
Brunno
Ferreira vs. Ikram
Aliskerov – middleweight
Ismail
Naurdiev vs. TBA – middleweight
Abdul-Rakhman
Yakhyaev vs. Julius
Walker – light heavyweight
Bekzat
Almakhan vs. Jean
Matsumoto – bantamweight
Nursulton
Ruziboev vs. Andrey
Pulyaev – middleweight
Daniil
Donchenko vs. Andreas
Gustafsson – welterweight
Nazim
Sadykhov vs. Matheus
Camilo – lightweight
Eric
Nolan vs. Farman
Hasanov – welterweight