Two Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts were
scratched on fight week before the competitors could even hit the
scales.
The UFC announced
on Thursday the first of two medical scratches for
UFC Fight Night 220, when it stated that Jose
Johnson had been forced to withdraw from his 135-pound match
against Garrett
Armfield. Armfield was unable to gain a replacement opponent on
such short notice, and the bout had been ultimately canceled from
the lineup. It is unclear at this time if the promotion will
reschedule the fight, as Johnson stated shortly after the news
broke on his
Instagram Stories that he will require surgery.
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Johnson was preparing to make his promotional debut on the Saturday
fight card inside of the UFC Apex, but this has been pushed back a
bit. “No Way” punched his ticket to the UFC by taking a decision
over Jack
Cartwright in his second jaunt on Dana White’s Contender Series. His first did
not go his way, as Ronnie
Lawrence defeated him on the scorecards. Winning three in four
in his next four outings got him the second call-up to DWCS, and he
made good on that opportunity.
Aiming to get back in the win column after a July 2022 loss,
Armfield was one of the increasingly rare fighters to get signed to
the UFC without going through DWCS. Instead, a trio of victories in
the Shamrock FC and Fighting Alliance Championship leagues allows
him to take late-notice spot on UFC on ESPN 39, fighting up a
weight category from his standard of bantamweight while replacing
Austin
Lingo. That debut did not go his way, as David Onama
put him to sleep with an arm-triangle choke in Round 2. The
Missouri native sports a high finish rate of 87% as a pro, with six
first-round stoppages on his young ledger.
On Friday shortly before the weigh-ins were set to take place, the
promotion then updated its announcement to add that Hailey
Cowan had been forced out of her bantamweight contest against
Ailin
Perez on Feb. 25. While Johnson suffered an undisclosed medical
issue that will ultimately require surgery, Cowan succumbed to
illness – but it is not clear if the illness was related to her
weight cut. Perez has subsequently called out Cowan on Instagram,
challenging her former opponent while expressing frustration that
the fight is off suddenly.
The 31-year-old Cowan was hoping to make her debut on this card,
having strung together seven wins in her last eight walks to the
cage. The lone defeat along the way came under the Legacy Fighting Alliance banner, in a promotion
she rattled five wins together to become one of the most successful
female fighters to compete in its ranks. After losing to Kelly
Clayton in 2020, Cowan took time off and came back to tap
Monica
Franco in January 2022 with Invicta Fighting Championships, which earned
her a chance to vie for a contract through DWCS. A split decision
over Claudia
Leite granted her a place on the UFC roster.
Perez, a Samurai House vet out of Argentina, fell short in her
first trip to the Octagon in September 2022. In a rare women’s
featherweight contest, “Fiona” faced Stephanie
Egger and fell to a rear-naked choke in the second frame. The
loss ended a two-fight finish streak that saw her knock out
Romina
Aguirre and force Stephanie
Bragayrac’s team to throw in the towel in a pair of victorious
2022 performances. Before the Egger loss, Perez’ only setback came
via disqualification against future UFC roster mate Tamires
Vidal in 2021.
UFC Fight Night 220 continues at the UFC Apex on Feb. 25 with 11
fights on the docket. The main attraction remains a light
heavyweight battle between Nikita
Krylov and Ryan Spann
with potential top-10 implications at stake. The co-headliner sees
middleweight grapplers Andre Muniz
and Brendan
Allen ply their trades against one another. Filling out the
main card is an obligatory heavyweight slugfest between Augusto
Sakai and Don’Tale
Mayes, a women’s flyweight match pitting Tatiana
Suarez against Montana
De La Rosa, and a welterweight banger as Mike Malott
faces Yohan
Lainesse.