UFC 313 hit by last-minute fight cancellations, fans left frustrated

The much-awaited UFC 313 event was marred by surprise cancellations as two bouts were scrapped from the schedule mere hours before the action was to get underway on Saturday.

UFC 313 fight cancellations: Curtis Blaydes and John Castaneda’s fights withdraw due to illness

Heavyweight hopeful Curtis Blaydes was hospitalsed due to sickness and was pulled out of his bout against rookie Rizvan Kuniev, while John Castaneda too got sick and his bout against Chris Gutierrez was scrapped. These last-minute cancellations saw the event scheduled with just 10 bouts and resulted in dramatic delays in the broadcast schedule.

Fight cancellations at UFC 313 upset the card

No. 5 ranked heavyweight Curtis Blaydes revealed that he had contracted norovirus overnight and would not be able to recover in time for the bout. Though he wanted to go ahead and fight, his body would not permit it, and he eventually withdrew. The UFC subsequently revealed that Castaneda also contracted an illness, though it is unknown if the two incidents were related.

Castaneda was already dealing with scheduling problems as he lined up for this bout. He was initially set to fight Douglas Silva de Andrade on March 1, but that fight was set to be pushed back because of Andrade's health problems. When Gutierrez came in as a replacement last minute to fight on March 8, it was another delay for the fighter, who has not fought since June 2024.

Delays and reactions from the fans

The postponement of a couple of bouts on the card required deep changes to the event timeline. The prelims, which were to start at 3:30 pm local time in Las Vegas, started an hour behind schedule. Following another 35-minute delay, the opening of the early bout between Ozzy Diaz and Djorden Santos finally took place, leaving arena-attending fans and others at home very frustrated.

Most people vented their anger on social media. Some were upset with the UFC for not having standby fighters, while others were upset with the late evening start time for overseas viewers, particularly in the UK, where the bouts started after midnight.

What lies ahead?

With UFC 313 now scheduled to have a mere 10 fights, speculation continues on if and when the cancelled fights will be rescheduled. Although both Blaydes and Castaneda have given no timeline of when they could return, optimistically, one might think there was hope their bouts would ultimately materialize some other time. In the meantime, UFC 313 remains an evening of opportunities missed and continued questions of event viability.