The UFC 313 card lost two fights just before the action began on Saturday.
No. 5 heavyweight Curtis Blaydes pulled out of his fight with Rizvan Kuniev. According to Blaydes, he came down with the norovirus overnight, and despite efforts to recover, his “body wouldn’t cooperate.”
Blaydes said the fight will be rescheduled for a later date. That makes it the second time the fight has been canceled and in need of a new date.
Originally, Blaydes and Kuniev were supposed to fight in February, but the bout was pushed to UFC 313. Now, we may see it rescheduled yet again.
Blaydes hasn’t fought since he was knocked out by Tom Aspinall in the first round of their rematch in July 2024. Kuniev was hoping to make his main-roster debut.
He earned a spot on the UFC roster with a first-round TKO win over Hugo Canha on Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2024. I’d suspect this fight is rescheduled sometime soon.
In addition to the cancellation of Blaydes-Kuniev, the UFC was also forced to call off the John Castaneda vs. Chris Gutierrez fight.
Castaneda also fell ill and was unable to compete. It’s unknown whether the illnesses are related. He was originally supposed to fight Douglas Silva de Andrade on March 1, but the latter had medical issues that prevented him from competing.
Castaneda’s fight was pushed to March 8, and Gutierrez stepped up to take the short-notice bout. With the last-minute subtractions from the card, UFC 313 was left with just 10 fights.
Castaneda has now been out of action for nearly a year, with his last fight happening in June 2024. He lost that fight via unanimous decision to Daniel Marcos. Gutierrez knocked off Quang Lee in August 2024, so he’s not dealing with as long of a layoff.
Perhaps he gets rebooked in the near future. It’s possible this fight could be rescheduled for an upcoming card over the next two months.
Luckily, none of the fights that were pulled from the lineup came from the pay-per-view portion of the show.
Here is a look at the updated card.
UFC 313
Date: Saturday, March 8, 2025
Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
Main Card: 10:00 PM ET | Prelims: 8:00 PM ET | Early Prelims: 6:00 PM ET
Main Card
- Light Heavyweight Championship Bout: Alex Pereira (C) vs. Magomed Ankalaev
- Lightweight Bout: Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev
- Lightweight Bout: Jalin Turner vs. Ignacio Bahamondes
- Women’s Strawweight Bout: Amanda Lemos vs. Iasmin Lucindo
- Lightweight Bout: King Green vs. Mauricio Ruffy
Preliminary Card
- Flyweight Bout: Joshua Van vs. Rei Tsuruya
- Middleweight Bout: Brunno Ferreira vs. Armen Petrosyan
- Welterweight Bout: Alex Morono vs. Carlos Leal
Early Preliminary Card
- Featherweight Bout: Mairon Santos vs. Francis Marshall
- Middleweight Bout: Djorden Santos vs. Ozzy Diaz
Be on the lookout for coverage of every finish that occurs during the event. You can see every finish from UFC 313 here.
