It hasn’t happened often over the course of his lengthy UFC career, but Edson Barboza has been forced out of his next fight with an injury.
Barboza is out of his featherweight fight against Steve Garcia next week at UFC Fight Night 252, which is set for Feb. 22 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
A person with knowledge of the matchup confirmed Barboza’s injury to MMA Junkie on Thursday following an initial report from MMA Orbit.
UFC officials have not announced Barboza’s removal, and it is not yet known if Garcia will remain on the card against a replacement opponent.
Barboza (24-12 MMA, 18-12 UFC), 39, was looking to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to Lerone Murphy. The setback snapped a two-fight winning streak against Billy Quarantillo and Sodiq Yusuff.
Garcia (17-5 MMA, 6-2 UFC) has won five straight fights, all by knockout – and all in the first half of the fights. The victims on that list are Chase Hooper, Shayilan Nuerdanbieke, Melquizael Costa, Seung Woo Choi and Kyle Nelson, and Barboza would have been Garcia’s biggest win yet.
With the change, the UFC Fight Night 252 lineup now includes:
Henry Cejudo vs. Song Yadong
Brendan Allen vs. Anthony Hernandez
Melsik Baghdasaryan vs. Jean Silva
Rob Font vs. TBA
Steve Garcia vs. TBA
Ibo Aslan vs. Ion Cutelaba
Andre Fili vs. Melquizael Costa
Macy Chiasson vs. Ketlen Vieira
Modestas Bukauskas vs. Rafael Cerqueira
Javid Basharat vs. Ricky Simon
Adam Fugitt vs. Billy Ray Goff
Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Nick Klein
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 252.
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