Fight Island cards rocked by multiple shake-ups, two positive COVID-19 tests

The UFC’s four-event stint on Fight Island (Yas Island in Abu Dhabi) has been hit by three shake-ups, including two resulting from positive COVID-19 tests.

Earlier this week, MMA Junkie reported that England’s Danny Roberts has withdrawn from his welterweight fight with Denmark’s Nicolas Dalby, and Kazakhstan’s Shavkat Rakhmonov is out of his welterweight fight with Russia’s Ramazan Emeev. The report did not specify why Roberts and Rakhmonov withdrew. Both fights were scheduled to occur on the UFC’s July 25 Fight Island card — the final event in that location. Since then, Dalby has accepted Canada’s Jesse Ronson as a replacement opponent for the same card. Emeev is still without a replacement opponent.

Unfortunately, that’s not where the Fight Island shake-ups ended.

On Friday morning, MMA Fighting reported that Brazilian bantamweight Anderson dos Santos has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing his withdrawal from his July 15 fight with Welshman Jack Shore. A subsequent report from MMA Fighting announced that Brazil’s Vinicius Moreira is out of his light heavyweight fight with Lithuanian Englishman Modestas Bukauskas. Like dos Santos, Moreira also tested positive for COVID-19. Replacement opponents have not been found for either of the two men, who are both now quarantining.

Here are the updated lineups for Fight Island in the wake of these shake-ups (recent changes are italicized in bold).

UFC 251 – July 11 on Fight Island

• Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns – welterweight title fight
• Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway – featherweight title fight
• Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo – vacant bantamweight title fight
• Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas
• Amanda Ribas vs. Paige VanZant
• Volkan Oezdemir vs. Jiri Prochazka
• Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs. Muslim Salikhov
• Makwan Amirkhani vs. Danny Henry
• Leonardo Santos vs. Roman Bogatov
• Marcin Tybura vs. Maxim Grishin
• Raulian Paiva vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
• Karol Rosa vs. Vanessa Melo
• Martin Day vs. Davey Grant

UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs Ige – July 15 on Fight Island

• Calvin Kattar vs. Dan Ige
• Frankie Edgar vs. Pedro Munoz
• Carla Esparza vs. Marina Rodriguez
• Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Mounir Lazzez
• Jared Gordon vs. Chris Fishgold
• Modestas Bukauskas vs. TBA
• Molly McCann vs. Talia Santos
• Ricardo Ramos vs. Lerone Murphy
• John Phillips vs. Dusko Todorovic
• Tim Elliott vs. Ryan Benoit
• Diana Belbita vs. Liana Jojua
• Jack Shore vs. TBA

UFC Fight Night: Figueiredo vs. Benavidez 2 – July 18 on Fight Island

• Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Joseph Benavidez – vacant flyweight title fight
• Jack Hermansson vs. Kelvin Gastelum
• Marc Diakiese vs. Rafael Fiziev
• Ariane Lipski vs. Luana Carolina
• Alexandre Pantoja vs. Askar Askarov
• Roman Dolidze vs. Khadis Ibragimov
• Grant Dawson vs. Nad Narimani
• Joe Duffy vs. Joel Alvarez
• Brett Johns vs. Montel Jackson
• Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Alexander Doskalchuk
• Davi Ramos vs. Arman Tsarukyan
• Carlos Felipe vs. Sergei Spivak

UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Till – July 25 on Fight Island

• Robert Whittaker vs. Darren Till
• Mauricio Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
• Alex Oliveira vs. Peter Sobotta
• Fabricio Werdum vs. Alexander Gustafsson
• Nicolas Dalby vs. Jesse Ronson
• Paul Craig vs. Gadzhimurad Antigulov
• Francisco Trinaldo vs. Jai Herbert
• Tom Aspinall vs. Jake Collier
• Justin Tafa vs. Raphael Pessoa
• Movsar Evloev vs. Mike Grundy
• Bethe Correia vs. Pannie Kianzad
• Nathaniel Wood vs. Umar Nurmagomedov
• Ramazan Emeev vs. TBA