The much anticipated co-main event of UFC 260 between Alexander Volkanovski and Brain Ortega is now off due to COVID. The news was announced during the prelims of UFC Fight Night: Kevin Holland vs Derek Brunson.
Recently, Gregor Gillespie vs Brad Riddell was cancelled due to COVID protocols as UFC Vegas 22 lost its co-main event. And now it’s the much-anticipated title clash of Alexander Volkanovski vs Brian Ortega.
This is a huge blow to the UFC 260 card which was shaping up to be one of the biggest cards of recent times. Despite losing the co-main event, UFC 260 promises a lot of fireworks as Stipe Miocic defends his heavyweight title against Francis Ngannou in a rematch. Former champion, Tyron Woodley takes on Vicente Luque, and Sean O Miley makes his return to take on Thomas Almeida.
What’s next for Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega?
It’s very likely that UFC is going to postpone this fight to a later date. Brian Ortega certainly deserves the title shot against Volkanovski after his come-back win over The Korean Zombie. And Volkanovski needs to fight a fresh opponent before possibly fighting Max Holloway in a trilogy.
So far there have not been any updates on whether the fighters involved tested positive for COVID-19. If both the fighters are ready to compete then we might expect UFC to book this fight for UFC 262, which needs a big fight to complement the title fight between Charles Oliveria and Michael Chandler.
However, this does raise some concerns about UFC’s decision to bring back fans to the arena. As announced by Dana White, UFC 261 will have 15000 fans in the arena. Though Dana White has been able to successfully pull off miracles and put on fights every weekend despite all the adversities bringing back fans to the arena might do some harm to UFC’s safety protocol for COVID.