Curtis Blaydes vs. Derrick Lewis — tomorrow
night’s UFC main event — has been canceled, per multiple sources.
Blaydes has tested positive for COVID.The promotion is hoping to reschedule the fight in December,
sources say, though that isn’t a done deal just yet.— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
November 27, 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. Editor’s note: The article has been updated at 1:25
p.m. on Nov. 27 to reflect the new status of the new main
event.
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship headliner on the latest ESPN
showcase is off the day before it was set to go down.
ESPN
first announced on Friday that Curtis
Blaydes tested positive for COVID-19. This news pulls him out
of his
UFC on ESPN 18 heavyweight main event with Derrick
Lewis. ESPN noted that the UFC is intending to re-book the
event for a December card, but given the length of quarantine for
standard coronavirus cases, it would likely be headed to the
already stacked
UFC Fight Night 183 card on Dec. 19. Shifting to the headliner
place will be a light heavyweight matchup of Anthony
Smith (33-16) vs. Devin Clark
(12-4), which, according to MMA
Junkie, will be a five-round affair. ESPN
has since confirmed that the contest has now been booked for five
rounds.
This will be Smith’s seventh consecutive bout as a main event,
although like his match with Aleksandar
Rakic, it will be on short notice. Smith vs. Rakic served atop
UFC Fight Night 175 in August when the Zabit
Magomedsharipov–Yair
Rodriguez scrap fell through again. Entering his 50th career
bout, Smith is on his first losing streak since 2013, when a trio
of submission defeats led to his exodus from the UFC. The losses
both came in 2020, when Glover
Teixeira pounded him out in May and Rakic outworked him to a
one-sided decision loss. “Lionheart” does sport a 91 percent finish
rate in victory, with each of his last seven triumphs coming inside
the distance.
Clark will be thrust into his first marquee matchup against Smith
after 10 prior trips to the Octagon. “Brown Bear” has beaten six
opponents inside the UFC to date, all by unanimous verdict. On the
other hand, each of his four defeats came by stoppage within two
frames. The Jackson-Wink MMA fighter is currently riding a
two-fight win streak with decisions over Alonzo
Menifield and Dequan
Townsend. This is his longest winning stretch since he rattled
off wins in 2016 and 2017 over Josh
Stansbury and Jake
Collier.
UFC on ESPN 18 is scheduled for Nov. 28 for now at the UFC Apex in
Las Vegas. With the headliner now Smith vs. Clark at light
heavyweight, the new co-main sees the unbeaten Miguel
Baeza square off with the hard-hitting Takashi
Sato at welterweight. Also on the main card is a fun
heavyweight collision between the debuting Josh
Parisian and heavy-handed Parker
Porter.
