Phil Hawes’ second UFC fight was delayed after his middleweight fight against Nassourdine Imavov was eliminated in Saturday’s UFC on card ABC 1.
MMA Junkie confirmed the news after an initial report by RT Sport. The card for the first UFC fight of 2021 fell from 13 to 12 fights. No reason was given for the fight to be canceled.
Hawes, a graduate of Dana White’s Contender Series (9-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC), started his UFC career spectacularly with an 18-second knockout at Jacob Malkoun to win a “Performance of the Night” bonus check at UFC 254 in October.
He was ready to face Imavov, born in Russia and living in France (9-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who also had an early career in the UFC last year with a unanimous decision victory over Jordan Williams in the UFC on ESPN 16, also in October.
The pair were ready to show their skills on the preliminary card in Abu Dhabi. But undisclosed circumstances now forced the fight off the card.
UFC on ABC 1 takes place on Saturday at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The main card will air on ABC and broadcast on ESPN + after the preliminaries on ESPN +.
With the change, the revised lineup for UFC at ABC 1 includes:
MAIN CARD (ABC, ESPN +, 3 pm Eastern Time)
Max Holloway vs. Calvin Kattar Matt Brown vs. Carlos Condit Li Jingliang vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio Joaquin Buckley vs. Alessio Di Chirico Punahele Soriano vs. Dusko Todorovic
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN +, 12h ET)
Joselyne Edwards vs. Wu Yanan Omari Akhmedov vs. Tom Breese Carlos Felipe vs. Justin Tafa Mike Grundy vs. Nik Lentz Ramazan Emeev vs. David Zawada Vanessa Melo vs. Sarah Moras Jacob Kilburn vs. Austin Lingo Gaetano Pirrello vs. Ricky Simon