This haircut is 2-0 in ufc even without
appearing in the octagon. Another opponent doesn’t want to take his
chance and pulled out 🤦🏻♂️ 😡 pic.twitter.com/kwvoFIsx2i— Zhalgas Zhumagulov (@ZhakoZhumagulov)
June 15, 2023
Editor’s note: The article has been updated on 6:15 p.m. ET to
reflect the change in event for Zhumagulov.
The latest Ultimate Fighting Championship card has just
experienced a few shake-ups the day before weigh-ins.
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On Thursday, a pair of matchups at
UFC on ESPN 47 – the fight card that will take place inside of
the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on June 17 – changed. The first, the
news came courtesy of the promotion itself, which announced
that Miles Johns
suffered an injury and is out of his bantamweight battle with
Raoni
Barcelos. The fight has subsequently been pulled from the
lineup.
Johns, who declared he suffered an injury on Wednesday night during
training, posted on social
media shortly after word spread about his withdrawal, where he
lamented, “Sorry guys. F—ing sucks. Never felt more ready in my
life. Going to get healed up and hoping to get this fight rebooked
asap!”
“Chapo” was aiming to make his first appearance of the year, in
hopes of stringing together a win streak after his decision win
over Vince
Morales last November. After six bouts in the Octagon thus far,
Johns has only dropped two, with stoppage defeats to Mario
Bautista and John
Castaneda preventing him from putting together much momentum.
Barcelos, on the other hand, is aiming to break a very rough patch
that includes just one win in over two years. Most recently, the
Brazilian suffered his first knockout loss when Umar
Nurmagomedov put him with a body kick and follow-up punches in
January. It is unclear if the promotion will put this fight
together again or move on with new foes for each 135er.
The second fight that transformed on Thursday saw Zhalgas
Zhumagulov (14-8) lose his opponent of Felipe
Bunes. Moving Zhumagulov’s appearance back one week, in Bunes’
place on short notice at
UFC on ABC 5 will be 21-year-old Joshua Van
(7-1). While Zhumagulov first wrote on Twitter
that the fight was off, accompanying that news with a joke about
his new haircut mimicking Paddy
Pimblett, the replacement fighter story was broken by Eurosport
Nederland. This new bout has since been confirmed by
other outlets.
Kazakhstan’s Zhumagulov will be trying to pick up his first win in
nearly two years when he faces Van in a little over a week. The
flyweight training out of American Top Team first succumbed to
strikes from Manel Kape
in 2021, and a pair of split decision losses to Jeff Molina
and Charles
Johnson sent him on the skid he rides today. From Myanmar and
currently residing in Texas, Van worked his way up to the promotion
by stringing together five finishes under the Fury Fighting Championship banner to ultimately
claim its 125-pound title. While Van was initially slated to meet
Kevin
Borjas on the first week of this year’s Dana White’s Contender Series season, he
stepped up to skip the line and claim a UFC contract.