COVID strikes again, rips featured fight from UFC Vegas 17 lineup

Belal Muhammad was scheduled to fight fellow welterweight stalwart Dhiego Lima in the featured bout of the UFC Vegas 17 “Prelims” inside APEX this Sat. night (Dec. 19, 2020) on ESPN+, but COVID-19 had other plans.

“Woke up yesterday feeling like crap, got tested and I was positive for COVID,” Muhammed wrote on social media. “Sucks, but I’ll be back.”

Muhammad (17-3) is the winner of three straight, having recently outpointed Lyman Good at UFC on ESPN 11 back in June. As for Lima (15-7), he’s also coming off three consecutive victories, squeaking past Luke Jumeau at UFC 243 last October.

The Muhammad vs. Lima bout is expected to be rebooked for next month in Abu Dhabi.

COVID-19 also took out the original UFC Vegas 17 headliner between Leon Edwards and Khamzat Chimaev and with four days until fight night, there’s a very real chance we could see the Dec. 19 lineup take another hit.

Until then, check out the revised UFC Vegas 17 fight card right here.