One of the best French fighters on the UFC roster will no longer compete on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card in Paris, France.
Fares Ziam has been removed from his scheduled lightweight bout with Kaue Fernandes “due to personal reasons,” the UFC announced Tuesday.
Ziam, who fights out of Lyon, won five fights in a row and seven of his past eight overall and was coming off an upset victory over Mike Davis in February.
Now, Fernandes will instead face UFC newcomer Harry Hardwick in a preliminary matchup.
Brazil’s Fernandes is coming off back-to-back wins over Mohammad Yahya and Guram Kutateladze.
England’s Hardwick, meanwhile, is the reigning Cage Warriors featherweight champion but will be moving up to the lightweight division for his promotional debut. Hardwick is unbeaten in his past nine outings.
Thankfully, the main event between France’s Nassourdine Imavov and Brazil’s Caio Borralho is still on. The middleweight contenders are set for a five-round bout that could determine new 185-pound champion Khamzat Chimaev’s next opponent.
It’s also France vs. Brazil in the co-main event with Benoit Saint Denis taking on Mauricio Ruffy in lightweight action.
Below is the updated projected bout order for UFC Paris (subject to change):
— Nassourdine Imavov vs. Caio Borralho
— Benoit Saint Denis vs. Mauricio Ruffy
— Modestas Bukauskas vs. Paul Craig
— Bolaji Oki vs. Mason Jones
— Axel Sola vs. Rhys McKee
— Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Losene Keita
— William Gomis vs. Robert Ruchala
— Oumar Sy vs. Brendson Ribeiro
— Marcin Tybura vs. Ante Delija
— Harry Hardwick vs. Kaue Fernandes
— Sam Patterson vs. Trey Waters
— Brad Tavares vs. Robert Bryczek
— Andreas Gustafsson vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov
— Shauna Bannon vs. Sam Hughes
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