Just days before UFC 288 we receive a bombshell that Bryce Mitchell is out of his fight against Movsar Evloev. This is just a couple of weeks after Evloev stepped in on short notice to take on Bryce Mitchell after Jonathan Pearce tore his ACL and withdrew from the fight. Luckily, the UFC has been able to find a replacement on super short notice.
Stepping in on just days' notice is Dana White's Contender Series alumni Diego Lopes. Lopes last fought six months ago at Lux Fight League where he defeated his opponent Angel Rodriguez by second-round knockout. He now gets to take on his stiffest competition to date on just five days' notice.
There have been speculations as to why Bryce Mitchell had to pull out of this fight but sources say that he was injured during training. He was shown on the embedded videos leading up to this weekend's PPV event with a bruised shoulder and elbow when he emersed himself in the ice bath.
After this portion of the video, he was later heard saying that he is healthy and that he had a great fight camp. The picture above made most UFC fans worried that he might have injured himself and will have to pull out of the fight. Just a day later and it was confirmed that Bryce Mitchell was indeed out of his fight against Movsar Evloev.
This is definitely a huge loss for the UFC 288 main card but Diego Lopes will put on a show for the fans. Those that may not know about him should go rewatch his fight on the Contender Series with Joanderson Brito to get familiar.
Either way with or without this fight, we still get to see who the bantamweight king is this weekend when Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo face off this weekend.