It doesn’t matter how hard you work …
sometimes things are out of our control. His plan not mine. I hope
to still be fighting before the year ends. Sorry @drewdober
hope we will meet in the octagon soon
#family
#ufcfightnight #2020
#rgvfighters
#tfbjj
#fortismma
#bless #mma
pic.twitter.com/LkS863Rvgk— Diego Ferreira (@DiegoUFCTX)
October 23, 2020
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. A rising star in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship has been forced to pull out of a
big upcoming matchup. Late on Thursday, MyMMANews
first reported that Diego
Ferreira (17-2) would no longer be competing at
UFC on ESPN 17 against Drew Dober
(23-9, 1 NC). The two were coming to blows on Nov. 7 at the UFC
Apex in Las Vegas, in a bout featured on the main card. Conflicting
reports have claimed that Ferreira
suffered an illness that may or may not be related to COVID-19,
while
others indicate that it was an arm injury that forced Ferreira
out. Ferreira confirmed on his Instagram on
Thursday night that he was out of the bout, but did not specify a
reason. The promotion is actively seeking a replacement, but it may
opt to reschedule the pairing for a later date.
“It doesn’t matter how hard you work,” Ferreira wrote. “Sometimes
things are out of your control. His [God] plan not mine. I hope to
still be fighting before the year ends. Sorry Drew Dober,
hope we will meet in the Octagon soon.“
The Brazilian out of Texas has been on a tear the last few years,
with six consecutive wins and the most recent of which a submission
of Anthony
Pettis in January. Although a failed drug test in late 2016
kept him out of action for nearly a year and a half, Ferreira has
come back to beat Jared
Gordon, Kyle Nelson,
Rustam
Khabilov, Mairbek
Taisumov and Pettis in rapid succession. Both he and Dober were
originally booked to face one another in May, but when the event
was scrapped, it was pushed to November.
Dober is also on an impressive run since early 2019. Bouncing back
from a submission loss to Beneil
Dariush, Dober drummed out Marco Polo
Reyes, Nasrat
Haqparast and Alexander
Hernandez all within two rounds with strikes. His three-fight
win streak is the longest he has ridden since a five-win stretch in
2012 and 2013 to get signed to the UFC. Although he has won six of
seven dating back to 2017, his past three defeats all came by
submission.
UFC on ESPN 17 goes down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, where it
will be topped by a light heavyweight thriller and title eliminator
between Thiago
Santos and Glover
Teixeira. The co-headlining bout will likely be a middleweight
matchup between Ian
Heinisch and Brendan
Allen, while Claudia
Gadelha squares off with Xiaonan Yan
at women’s strawweight earlier on the main card.
