UFC Jacksonville, which takes place tonight (Wednesday, May 13) will now go ahead with just 10 fights.
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani first reported that Marvin Vettori vs. Karl Roberson is off due to Roberson falling ill due to his weight cut. The UFC has since confirmed that fight is not happening.
“Due to medical issues unrelated to COVID-19 after his weight cut, Karl Roberson has been pulled from his Wednesday bout with Marvin Vettori at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville.
“The UFC Fight Night card, headlined by the bout between Anthony Smith and Glover Teixeira, will proceed as scheduled with 10 bouts,” the statement read.
This is no doubt heartbreaking news for Marvin Vettori who was supposed to be on the London card that got canceled. The Italian flew to England just to have the card canceled and flew back to the States awaiting a new fight. He was scheduled to face Roberson at UFC Nebraska on April 25, but that event was also canceled.
Vettori has not fought since last October at UFC Tampa where he beat Andrew Sanchez by decision. He’s currently 4-2-1 in the UFC with one of his losses coming by split decision to Israel Adesanya.
Karl Roberson, meanwhile, is on a two-fight winning streak where last time out he submitted Roman Kopylov. The American is 4-2 in the UFC.