‘Thug Nasty’ withdraws from his fight against Movsar Evolev. Diego Lopes expected to be the replacement.
The news of Bryce Mitchell’s withdrawal, reported by ESPN Deportes, comes as an unwelcome surprise to many fight fans excited to see if Mitchell could return to winning ways. ‘Thug Nasty’ was filmed on the first instalment of UFC’s Embedded YouTube series, which documents the fighters’ preparations during fight week. In the episode released yesterday, Mitchell was filmed on his farm in Arkansas getting into an ice bath prepared by his partner. Based on Mitchell’s comments on the episode that the fight was one week away, it suggested the segment was filmed just last Saturday and Mitchell seemed in good spirits as he looked ahead to the fight.
Mitchell’s withdrawal from the card is a blow to UFC 288, an event which has already been through multiple changes. Mitchell was originally scheduled to fight Jonathan Pearce at UFC 288; however, Pearce had to withdraw from the bout (first reported by Fight Analyst). We are awaiting more news on the reasons for Mitchell’s withdrawal, and it is currently unclear when he will next be available to fight.
A couple of days after Pearce’s withdrawal, Charles Oliveira’s bout versus Beneil Dariush was postponed from the UFC 288 card after ‘Do Bronxs’ suffered an injury in training. The co-main event slot was replaced by Gilbert Burns vs Belal Muhammad, which is certainly a worthy alternative.
The Russian Movsar Evolev (16-0) will now defend his unbeaten record against Brazil’s Diego Lopes (21-5) at UFC 288.
Discussion about this post