Volkan Oezdemir vs. Nikita Krylov will no longer take place.
Originally, the light heavyweights were set to collide in the co-main event on Oct. 17 at the fight night show, but a knee injury has forced Oezdemir to pull out of the respective bout. RT Sport first confirmed the news, with Oezdemir confirming the report on instagram shortly after:
“I’m devastated,” Oezdemir wrote. “I won’t be able to fight due to a knee injury. I apologize to Dana White, the UFC, Mick Maynard], my opponent [Nikita Krylov] and all the fans. I’ll rest and work on my fastest recovery possible to be back in that octagon ASAP.”
Oezdemir was hoping to bounce back from his loss to Jiri Prochazka at UFC 251 that snapped his two-fight winning streak going in. There’s no word on how long the light heavyweight could be out of action. In terms of Krylov, there hasn’t been any confirmation on his stats for the upcoming fight night event. Officials haven’t pulled him off the card just yet, but there’s been no reports on the UFC searching for a new opponent.
The UFC Fight Night event on October 17th will be headlined by a featherweight fight between Brian Ortega and Chan Sung Jung. We’ll keep you updated if a replacement is found for Nikita Krylov.