Arantes vs. Sanders scratched, UFC Pittsburgh reduced to ten fights

More bad news hits Saturday’s UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Branch card in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. An intriguing preliminary card bout between bantamweights Luke Sanders and Felipe Arantes has been scrapped due to an undisclosed illness for the Brazilian. The UFC announced that there will be no replacement opponent for Sanders, which is understandable given that this was announced on Thursday. Sanders was reportedly paid his show money.

This fight cancellation comes just days after Thiago Alves withdrew from his co-main event fight vs. Mike Perry. According to Ariel Helwani, Alves was stranded due to Hurricane Irma, which ravaged the state of Florida, where Thiago trains and resides. Replacing Alves is newcomer Alex Reyes, whose most recent fight took place at lightweight.

There will only be 10 fights taking place at UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Branch in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so that means all of the matchups will air on FS1, and none on Fight Pass.

Main Card (10 PM ET, FS1)

Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch
Mike Perry vs. Alex Reyes
Hector Lombard vs. Anthony Smith
Gregor Gillespie vs. Jason Gonzalez
Sergio Moraes vs. Kamaru Usman
Justin Ledet vs. Zu Anyanwu

Preliminary Card (8 PM ET, FS1)

Tony Martin vs. Olivier Aubin-Mercier
Anthony Hamilton vs. Daniel Spitz
Uriah Hall vs. Krzysztof Jotko
Gilbert Burns vs. Jason Saggo