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On the cusp of what would’ve been his quickest turnaround since 2019, Gunnar Nelson has pulled out of his scheduled UFC 318 matchup against Neil Magny.
Longtime welterweight veteran Nelson (19-6-1 MMA, 10-6 UFC) will no longer meet Magny (29-13 MMA, 22-12 UFC) on the July 19 card at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+), withdrawing due to undisclosed reasons less than three weeks from the event.
A person with knowledge of the situation told MMA Junkie of the news following an initial report from X account Octagon Update. The person requested anonymity because the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Nelson is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Kevin Holland at UFC Fight Night 255 in March. It was his first bout in more than two years, prior to which he earned wins over Bryan Barberena and Takashi Sato. The 36-year-old said before the Holland fight that he intended to be more active, but he still hasn’t competed more than once in a calendar year since 2019.
It’s unknown at this time if Magny, who stands alone at the top of the 170-pound divisional victories list with 22, will get a replacement opponent on short notice for UFC 318 or be shifted to a different card.
The latest UFC 318 lineup now includes:
- Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier
- Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov
- Brendan Allen vs. Marvin Vettori
- Islam Dulatov vs. Adam Fugitt
- Brunno Ferreira vs. opponent TBA
- Neil Magny vs. opponent TBA
- Vinicius Oliveira vs. Kyler Phillips
- Nicolle Caliari vs. Carli Judice
- Jimmy Crute vs. Marcin Prachnio
- Francisco Prado vs. Nikolay Veretennikov
- Ateba Gautier vs. Robert Valentin
- Michael Johnson vs. Daniel Zellhuber
- Kevin Holland vs. Daniel Rodriguez
- Lukasz Brzeski vs. Ryan Spann
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