The upcoming UFC Fight Night event scheduled for Des Moines has been reduced by one fight following an uncommon situation where both participants in a planned light heavyweight contest suffered injuries.
On Tuesday, promotion officials confirmed the cancellation of the bout between Junior Tafa and Tuco Tokkos, which was set for Saturday`s event at Wells Fargo Arena. The reason for the cancellation was injuries to both fighters, though specific details regarding the nature of their injuries were not disclosed.
It is currently expected that the UFC plans to reschedule this particular matchup at a later date, allowing both fighters time to recover fully before competing.
Looking at their recent records, Junior Tafa is coming off a TKO win over Sean Sharaf in the second round back in October, a victory that ended a two-fight skid. Tuco Tokkos`s last outing was at UFC Tampa in December, where he lost a unanimous decision to Navajo Stirling.
Despite the cancellation, the UFC Des Moines card is still scheduled to feature 12 fights in total. The event will be main-evented by a five-round bantamweight fight between top contenders Cory Sandhagen and Deiveson Figueiredo.
Updated UFC Des Moines Fight Card
Main Card (ESPN2 & ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET)
- Cory Sandhagen vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
- Reinier de Ridder vs. Bo Nickal
- Daniel Rodriguez vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
- Montel Jackson vs. Daniel Marcos
- Cameron Smotherman vs. Serhiy Sidey
- Jeremy Stephens vs. Mason Jones
Preliminary Card (ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET)
- Miesha Tate vs. Yana Santos
- Ryan Loder vs. Azamat Bekoev
- Marina Rodriguez vs. Gillian Robertson
- Gaston Bolanos vs. Quang Le
- Don’Tale Mayes vs. Thomas Petersen
- Juliana Miller vs. Ivana Petrovic
