A featured heavyweight fight on the UFC 216 main card has been cancelled just minutes before the event was set to begin.
Derrick Lewis was pulled from the card after a lingering back injury flared up on Saturday, which forced UFC officials to scrap his fight against Fabricio Werdum.
Lewis’ management team told MMAWeekly.com that the heavyweight was in tremendous shape but his back seized up on him on Saturday morning, which forced him to pull out of the fight at UFC 216.
Lewis had dealt with the same injury ahead of his last fight with Mark Hunt but he went through training camp without any problems. Unfortunately, Lewis’ back flared up again on Saturday and now he’s unable to fight.
With Lewis vs. Werdum cancelled, the heavyweight bout between Walt Harris and Mark Godbeer will be bumped up to the UFC 216 main card on pay-per-view kicking off at 10 p.m. ET.
UFC 216 now moves forward with 11 total bouts on the card.
