Cody Garbrandt’s nearly 10-month wait to get back in the UFC cage will extend even longer.
Garbrandt (12-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC), a former UFC bantamweight champion, was expected to return to competition at UFC Fight Night 211, which takes place Oct. 1 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas before scheduled opponent Rani Yahya withdrew from the card for undisclosed reasons.
The UFC originally sought a replacement opponent for Garbrandt to fight, but then “No Love” suffered an injury, as well. MMA Junkie verified the news with a UFC official following an initial report from ESPN.
“Cody’s fight has been postponed,” Dave Lockett, UFC senior director of public relations, told ESPN. “Both fighters are injured, so we are not sure as to when the bout will be rescheduled.”
Garbrandt, 31, has had a rough run of results since he stunned then-champ Dominick Cruz to win UFC gold in December 2016. He’s lost five of six fights since then, albeit to elite competition in T.J. Dillashaw (twice), Pedro Munhoz, Rob Font and Kai Kara-France.
The loss to Kara-France marked Garbrandt’s debut in the flyweight division, but it ended in a first-round knockout defeat. He then opted to return to 135 pounds.
This is the second time Garbrandt vs. Yahya has been derailed. They were originally scheduled to fight in July, but Yahya suffered a neck injury and it was postponed.
The latest UFC Fight Night 211 lineup now includes:
- Mackenzie Dern vs. Yan Xiaonan
- Brendan Allen vs. Krzysztof Jotko
- Randy Brown vs. Francisco Trinaldo
- Raoni Barcelos vs. Trevin Jones
- Ilir Latifi vs. Aleksei Oleinik
- Jessica Penne vs. Tabatha Ricci
- Guido Cannetti vs. Randy Costa
- Chelsea Chandler vs. Julija Stoliarenko
- John Castaneda vs. Daniel Santos
- Jesse Ronson vs. Joaquim Silva
- Viacheslav Borshchev vs. Mike Davis
- Don Shainis vs. Sodiq Yusuff
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 211.
