Unfortunate circumstances have kept UFC matchmakers busy in the lead-up to Saturday’s event as UFC on ESPN 61 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas has encountered a handful of changes in the days prior.
The scheduled co-main event between [autotag]Chris Gutierrez[/autotag] and [autotag]Javid Basharat[/autotag] won’t happen as planned. Basharat is out of the fight for undisclosed reasons; LFA standout [autotag]Quang Le[/autotag] will make his promotional debut against Gutierrez (20-6-2 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC). Fanáticos del MMA GT first reported the news.
Prior to the change, Le (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was scheduled to compete on Dana White’s Contender Series on Sept. 17 vs. [autotag]Aaron Tau[/autotag].
Additionally, [autotag]Allan Nascimento[/autotag] is out due to illness, and his main card bout vs. [autotag]Jafel Filho[/autotag] has been scrapped, the promotion announced Tuesday.
A third fight has been canceled. The welterweight bout between [autotag]Yusuke Kinoshita[/autotag] and [autotag]Jonny Parsons[/autotag] has been scrapped, multiple people with knowledge of the cancellation informed MMA Junkie on Friday.
With the changes, the UFC on ESPN 61 lineup now includes:
MAIN CARD (ESPN/ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
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Marcin Tybura vs. Serghei Spivac
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Chris Gutierrez vs. Quang Le
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Damon Jackson vs. Chepe Mariscal
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Chelsea Chandler vs. Yana Santos
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Danny Barlow vs. Nikolay Veretennikov
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN/ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET)
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Charalampos Grigoriou vs. Toshiomi Kazama
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Pannie Kianzad vs. Karol Rosa
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Jhonata Diniz vs. Karl Williams
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Jarno Errens vs. Youssef Zalal
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Talita Alencar vs. Stephanie Luciano
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 61.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC on ESPN 61 lineup hit with three changes, including new co-main event
