A middleweight clash pitting Sam Alvey
against Phil Hawes
won’t happen at
UFC Fight Night 200 as originally planned.
Alvey announced the bout’s cancellation on his YouTube page,
revealing that Hawes had been forced to withdraw due to an
undisclosed injury.
“I hope he’s OK. I heard he’s injured. I don’t know exactly what
happened,” Alvey said. “My prayers are with him. I hope he
heals.”
Now, Alvey will square off against Brendan Allen at UFC Fight Night
200 on short notice. Multiple outlets confirmed the new
middleweight booking following an initial report from
Eurosport. Hawes was the second proposed opponent for Alvey at
UFC Fight Night 200, as Ian
Heinisch also withdrew from the event.
“Smile’n” Sam is currently mired in a seven-bout winless streak in
which a draw against Da Un Jung
at UFC 254 is the only non-defeat during that period. Alvey hasn’t
won a bout in the Octagon since June 2018, when he took a split
verdict over Gian
Villante at UFC Fight Night 131.
Allen had a two-bout winning streak snapped in his last outing,
when he suffered a second-round TKO defeat to Chris Curtis at UFC
on ESPN 31 on Dec. 4. Prior to that, the Sanford MMA representative
scored back-to-back victories against Punahele Soriano and Karl
Roberson.
Hawes, meanwhile, had a seven-fight winning streak snapped in his
last outing, when he suffered a surprising first-round knockout
loss to Chris
Curtis at UFC 268 on Nov. 6.
UFC Fight Night 200 takes place on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas and is headlined by a middleweight scrap between Jack
Hermansson and Sean
Strickland.