Ian Machado Garry vs. Vicente Luque removed from UFC 296

By Cole Shelton - December 13, 2023

UFC 296 has taken a hit as a welterweight bout between Ian Machado Garry and Vicente Luque is off the card.

Ian Machado Garry and Vicente Luque

Machado Garry missed media day on Wednesday, but his wife told a reporter the Irishman would be at the press conference on Thursday. However, rumors started to swirl that Garry had fallen ill and his fight against Luque was in danger of being off.

Late Wednesday evening, UFC CEO Dana White took to social media to announce that Ian Machado Garry vs. Vicente Luque is indeed off of UFC 296. According to White, Garry was dealing with an illness that then turned into Pneumonia which forced him to be removed from the card.

It is disappointing news for Ian Machado Garry who spoke to BJPENN.com and planned on doing something spectacular in the fight to steal the show.

“The truth is, I’m going to do what I do every fight and leave my name in everybody’s mouth after the fight. I want to have the biggest performance, I want to be the person everybody is talking about, so I have to go out there and do something pretty spectacular to make sure that happens. If there is anybody who can do that, it’s me,” Garry said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com.

Vicente Luque, meanwhile, also spoke to BJPENN.com and was excited about the matchup as he knew it would be a fun fight and thought it would be the Fight of the Night.

“I think it is a lot of action. Our styles match up great, I’m a striker who walks forward, and he’s a guy who walks forward but is great at moving backward. We are going to be fighting three rounds, so that will set a high pace for this fight. If we go the three rounds it will be the Fight Night as both of us aren’t going to back down,” Luque said.

Ian Machado Garry (13-0) was coming off a one-sided win over Neil Magny back in August. The Irishman is a perfect 6-0 in the UFC and ranked 10th at welterweight.

Vicente Luque (22-9-1) returned to the win column in August with a decision victory over Rafael dos Anjos. Before that, he lost back-to-back fights to Geoff Neal and Belal Muhammad. Luque is currently ranked ninth at welterweight.

With Ian Machado Garry vs. Vicente Luque off, UFC 296 is as follows:

  • Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington
  • Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval
  • Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
  • Paddy Pimblett vs. Tony Ferguson
  • Josh Emmett vs. Bryce Mitchell
  • Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
  • Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
  • Casey O’Neill vs. Ariane Lipski
  • Alonzo Menifield vs. Dustin Jacoby
  • Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Cody Durden
  • Andre Fili vs. Lucas Almeida
  • Shamil Gaziev vs. Martin Buday
  • Randy Brown vs. Muslim Salikhov


Topics:

Ian Garry UFC Vicente Luque