UFC Vegas 44 loses Jeremiah Wells vs. Jake Matthews due to positive COVID-19 test

UFC Vegas 44 has lost another preliminary card fight.

Welterweight Jeremiah Wells revealed on social media that one of his cornermen tested positive for COVID-19, which means his showdown with Jake Matthews is now off.

Sorry everyone, I just found out that my fight is canceled due to exposure of Covid. My test result came back negative, but one of my corner men had a result of positive. Thank you to everyone that supported me, helped me with this fight camp and cheer me on.

Wells is coming off a brilliant UFC debut knockout win over Warlley Alves, whereas Australia’s Matthews hadn’t competed since his March defeat to undefeated welterweight contender Sean Brady. This was definitely one of the more compelling preliminary card bouts and now it’s off the table.

This news comes a day after Jared Vanderaa vs. Azamat Murzakanov was cancelled due to Vanderaa not being medically cleared to compete for non-COVID reasons. So there are only 13 fights instead of the 15.