UFC Vegas 72 suffers another late change up with Brian Kelleher out of bantamweight clash

UFC Vegas 72 has taken (another) a late hit.

UFC has confirmed that Bantamweight veteran, Brian Kelleher (24-14), has withdrawn from his fight against Journey Newson (10-4) this weekend (Sat., April 29, 2023). Legacy Fighting Alliance prospect, Marcus McGhee (6-1), will fill in for the now-140-pound Catchweight contest.

Eurosport’s Marcel Dorff first reported the news.

LIVE! Stream UFC Vegas 74 On ESPN+

HIGH STAKES FLYWEIGHT MATCHUP! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns home to UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sat., June 3, 2023, with No. 3-seeded contender, Kai Kara-France, face rising No. 7-ranked Amir Albazi. In UFC Vegas 74’s ESPN+-streamed co-main event, an exciting Featherweight bout sees No. 15-ranked contender, Alex Caceres, lock horns with all-action Daniel Pineda.

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McGhee, 32, has been pure entertainment throughout his young seven-fight career, finishing all of his wins by knockout or technical knockout. The Detroit, Michigan native currently rides a two-fight winning streak and fought as recently as Jan. 2023, defeating Ramos in round two.

Despite the shake up, Newson will still be aiming to rebound off a Sergey Morozov unanimous decision loss in Dec. 2022 with a big win over the debuting McGhee.

Check out UFC Vegas 72’s line up below:

Main Card

• 135 lbs.: Song Yadong vs. Ricky Simon
• 185 lbs.: Caio Borralho vs. Michał Oleksiejczuk
• 185 lbs.: Rodolfo Vieira vs. Cody Brundage
• 145 lbs.: Julian Erosa vs. Fernando Padilla
• 265 lbs.: Marcos Rogério de Lima vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
• 170 lbs.: Joshua Quinlan vs. Trey Waters

‘Prelims’ Card

• 265 lbs.: Martin Buday vs. Jake Collier
• 125 lbs.: Cody Durden vs. Charles Johnson
• 135 lbs.: Stephanie Egger vs. Irina Alekseeva
• 140 lbs.: Marcus McGhee vs. Journey Newson
• 135 lbs.: Hailey Cowan vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 72 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ preliminary card bouts at 4 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN+ main card start time at 7 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 72 news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive here. For the updated and finalized “Song vs. Simon” fight card and ESPN+ line up click here.