UFC 303: Brian Ortega out, Dan Ige in vs. Diego Lopes in last-minute shake-up for chaotic event

UFC 303 saw one final cancellation on Saturday, after veteran featherweight Brian Ortega pulled out at the last minute and left the event to announce his fourth different co-main event.

Minutes before the main card kicked off in Las Vegas, the UFC’s ESPN broadcast announced that Ortega had withdrawn from his bout due to an illness that left him with a fever of 103 degrees. His previously scheduled opponent Diego Lopes will instead face Dan Ige in the co-main event.

The co-main will now be a 165-pound catchweight bout for Lopes and Ige, who came to the arena and weighed in on the preliminary card. Nevada State Athletic Commission Director Jeff Mullen told ESPN that Ige was allowed to fill in because he was scheduled to fight at UFC Apex in three weeks, so his medical records were already up to date.

Ortega had already caused the UFC to change the fight from featherweight to lightweight due to weight cutting issues.

UFC 303 Pulls Conor McGregor, Jamahal Hill, and More

Withdrawals are a recurring theme for UFC 303. The event was initially announced with a main event featuring Conor McGregor’s return to the Octagon against Michael Chandler, with a co-main event between former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree Jr.

A contaminated supplement caused Rountree to pull out of the co-main, with Carlos Ulberg replacing him. McGregor and Hill were then both forced to withdraw due to injuries, putting the UFC in a tough spot. The end result was a new main event between light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and former champion Jiří Procházka, with the co-main event between Lopes and Ortega.

Ulberg was scheduled to face Anthony Smith until he too withdrew and was replaced by Roman Dolidze, making the top three fights on the card a total of six withdrawals.

And that’s not all, as fights between Gillian Robertson and Michelle Waterson-Gomez, Cody Durden and Carlos Hernandez, and Andrei Arlovski and Martin Buday were also planned, but were later postponed or changed.

Long story short, it’s been a busy few weeks for Dana White, who also had to deal with Khamzat Chimaev pulling out of his fight against Robert Whittaker last week. Whittaker made short work of replacement Ikram Aliskerov.