A finger infection has forced Sean
Strickland to withdraw from the
UFC Fight Night 212 main event against Jared
Cannonier on Oct. 15.
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UFC president Dana White confirmed Strickland’s exit from the card
following the Contender Series on Tuesday night while adding that
the promoiton will not seek a replacement opponent for Cannonier.
UFC Fight Night 212 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and
also includes a women’s flyweight clash between Viviane
Araujo and Alexa
Grasso as well as a men’s 125-pound tilt pitting Askar
Askarov against Brandon
Royval.
Strickland had a bid for title contention shot down at UFC 276, as
he suffered a first-round KO defeat to former Glory Kickboxing
champ Alex
Pereira in his most recent Octagon appearance. That defeat
snapped a six-bout winning streak for the 31-year-old Team Quest
representative.
Cannonier is coming off a failed attempt at middleweight gold at
UFC 276, where he dropped a five-round verdict to Israel
Adesanya on July 2. Prior to that, “The Killa Gorilla” had been
victorious in five of six promotional appearances, earning wins
over the likes of Derek
Brunson, Kelvin
Gastelum, Jack
Hermansson and Anderson
Silva.