Joe Rogan has revealed why UFC 313 was cut from 12 to 10 fights just hours before the event began.
UFC 313 was headlined by a light heavyweight title bout between Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
But just before the event was due to begin, the card took a massive hit, as it was revealed that four fighters had withdrew from the card.
One of those fighters was former heavyweight title challenger Curtis Blaydes, who last fought Tom Aspinall in the Octagon at UFC Manchester in July.
“It’s a bummer,” Rogan, who was commentating on the night, said during the opening sequence of UFC 313 in Las Vegas.
“Apparently, there’s something going around the UFC [Performance Institute].
“We’ve been hearing about a lot of guys getting sick. It’s very unfortunate, but we still have 10 great fights.”
Blaydes was scheduled to take on UFC debutant Rizvan Kuniev in the headline prelims act at UFC 313 and addressed his withdrawal on social media shortly after the announcement.
“Last night I got sick with norovirus,” he wrote on Facebook.
“[I] worked through the night to try and recover but my body wouldn’t cooperate.
“Fight going to be booked for a later date. Apologise to fans and my opponent be we will have this fight very soon.”
John Castaneda was also booked to appear at UFC 313, but pulled out for similar reasons ahead of his bantamweight fight with Chris Gutierrez.
The fight cancellations meant there was only one early prelim fight at UFC 313 as Ozzy Diaz claimed a unanimous decision win in the middleweight division in the opening bout.
The Las Vegas card was scheduled to begin at 11:30pm GMT, but given that fights are asssigned a 30-minute timeslot on the broadcast, the show was pushed back to 12:30am GMT.
Blaydes is the only fighter to hold a victory over current UFC interim heavyweight champion Aspinall in Dana White’s promotion.
He was awarded a victory just 15 seconds into their main event bout at UFC London in July 2022 after Aspinall suffered a brutal leg injury,
However, over two years later, Aspinall got the last laugh by knocking out Blaydes in the rematch at UFC 304 in Manchester, as the Brit was crowned the interim champ.
UFC 313 also witnessed Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev lock horns in a tasty co-main event as Jalin Turner fought Ignacio Bahamondes in the lightweight division.
