Per sources, Chris Daukaus and Shamil
Abdurakhimov has been removed from Saturday’s card and will be
rescheduled to an upcoming card TBD.— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter)
July 27, 2021
The “UFC Vegas 33” card has lost two more fights just days away
from the event.
On Monday night, news broke that the Chris
Daukaus vs. Shamil
Abdurakhimov heavyweight matchup had once again been called
off. Sherdog’s own sources confirmed the news following an initial
report by TSN.
At the moment of writing, the reason is still undisclosed. The pair
had been scheduled to square off at UFC on ESPN 27 last weekend,
but the fight was postponed after someone in Abdurakhimov’s camp
tested positive for COVID-19. Now, it has been rescheduled for an
unspecified later event.
In his last appearance, Daukaus (11-3, 3-0 UFC) scored his fourth
straight victory, taking out Alexey
Oleynik with punches 1:55 into Round 1 at UFC Fight Night 185,
earning a “Performance of the Night” bonus in the process. The
31-year old began his UFC stint with three consecutive first-round
KO/TKO triumphs, running through Parker
Porter, Rodrigo
Nascimento, and Oleynik.
Abdurakhimov (20-5, 5-3) is looking to bounce back after suffering
a stoppage at the hands of Curtis
Blaydes at UFC 242. That night, a combination of elbow and
punch forced the referee to stop the contest at the 2:22 mark of
the second stanza. Prior to that, “Abrek” amassed a three-bout
winning streak with victories over Chase
Sherman, former UFC heavyweight kingpin Andrei
Arlovski and Marcin
Tybura.
The upcoming event has also seen the Sam Alvey vs.
Roman
Kopylov middleweight clash falling off the card. Alvey first
revealed the news on his socials before other media outlets
confirmed it. According to “Smile’n,” Kopylov didn’t obtain his
visa to get into the United States from Russia. Alvey (33-15-1, 1
NC, 10-10-1 UFC) was on a mission to score his first victory since
June 2018, while Kopylov (8-1, 0-1) was looking for his first win
under the UFC banner.
UFC on ESPN 28 will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas,
Nevada, on July 31. The main event will see Uriah Hall
taking on Sean
Strickland in a middleweight affair. The new co-main event is a
170-pound tilt between Mounir
Lazzez and Niklas
Stolze.