A highly unusual situation involving injuries to both scheduled competitors has led to a fight cancellation at UFC Des Moines.
UFC officials confirmed on Tuesday that the planned light heavyweight contest between Junior Tafa and Tuco Tokkos has been removed from Saturday`s UFC Fight Night event set to take place at Wells Fargo Arena. The cancellation is a direct result of injuries sustained by both athletes.
Details regarding the specific nature of their injuries were not disclosed by the promotion. It is currently expected that the fight will be rescheduled for a future date once both fighters have recovered and are fit to compete.
Tafa`s last outing saw him secure a second-round TKO victory over Sean Sharaf in October, which successfully snapped a two-fight skid. Tokkos, conversely, is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Navajo Stirling at UFC Tampa back in December.
With this bout removed, the UFC Des Moines card is presently scheduled to move forward with 12 fights. The event is headlined by a five-round bantamweight main event clash featuring Cory Sandhagen versus Deiveson Figueiredo.
Updated Fight Card
Main Card (ESPN2 & ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET)
- Cory Sandhagen vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
- Reinier de Ridder vs. Bo Nickal
- Daniel Rodriguez vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
- Montel Jackson vs. Daniel Marcos
- Cameron Smotherman vs. Serhiy Sidey
- Jeremy Stephens vs. Mason Jones
Preliminary Card (ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET)
- Miesha Tate vs. Yana Santos
- Ryan Loder vs. Azamat Bekoev
- Marina Rodriguez vs. Gillian Robertson
- Gaston Bolanos vs. Quang Le
- Don’Tale Mayes vs. Thomas Petersen
- Juliana Miller vs. Ivana Petrovic
