Visa issues force Nassourdine Imavov out of Kelvin Gastelum bout at UFC 273

UFC 273 next weekend (Sat., April 9, 2022) has suffered a significant blow.

The promotion announced on Monday (March 28, 2022) via its website that the Middleweight bout between former title challenger, Kelvin Gastelum, and rising contender, Nassourdine Imavov, is off. Visa issues were revealed as the culprit for Imavov — who competes out of France — as the reason for his inability to make it to Jacksonville, Florida.

Replacing the fight will be a match up that was canceled ahead of this past weekend’s UFC Columbus card, Ilir Latifi vs. Aleksei Oleinik, at Heavyweight.

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MASSIVE MIDDLEWEIGHT MATCH! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) makes its highly anticipated return to Sydney, Australia, for the first time in five years on Sat., Sept. 9, 2023, with a 185-pound world title fight inside Qudos Bank Arena. In the ESPN+-streamed pay-per-view (PPV) main event, Middleweight roost-ruler, Israel Adesanya, plans to silence No. 5-seeded contender, Sean Strickland. In UFC 293’s hard-hitting Heavyweight co-main event, No-6-ranked fan favorite, Tai Tuivasa, locks horns with towering Russian, Alexander Volkov (No. 8).

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The removal of Gastelum vs. Imavov is certainly a hard pill to swallow for both men, considering their positions. It’s been a rough stretch for Gastelum since putting on an instant classic alongside Israel Adesanya in April 2019. Including that bout, Gastelum is 1-5 in his last six appearances with that lone win coming against Ian Heinisch and preceding two recent defeats to Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier.

As for Imavov (11-3), he too holds a win over Heinisch, whom he finished with strikes in the second round of their July 2021 affair (watch highlights). To follow it up, he battered Edmen Shahbazyan at UFC 268 in Nov. 2021 to once again score a second round stoppage (watch highlights).

Despite this late change to UFC 273, the card overall still holds up rather nicely:

• 145 lbs.: (C)Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chan Sung Jung
• 135 lbs.: (C)Aljamain Sterling vs. (IC)Petr Yan
• 170 lbs.: Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev
• 115 lbs.: Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres
• 265 lbs.: Ilir Latifi vs. Aleksei Oleinik
• 135 lbs.: Raquel Pennington vs. Aspen Ladd
• 170 lbs.: Ian Garry vs. Darian Weeks
• 185 lbs.: Dricus Du Plessis vs. Anthony Hernandez
• 265 lbs.: Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Marcin Tybura
• 170 lbs.: Mickey Gall vs. Mike Malott
• 135 lbs.: Julio Arce vs. Daniel Santos
• 155 lbs.: Mark Madsen vs. Vinc Pichel
• 115 lbs.: Kay Hansen vs. Piera Rodriguez

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 273 fight card and line up click here.