The UFC’s 14th ranked featherweight Charles Oliveira (18-4-1) will not compete in the scheduled UFC Fight Night 50 contest against the 8th ranked Nik Lentz tonight on Fox Sports 1. Oliveira came in at 150 on the scales yesterday at the official weigh-ins though it was reported he had been battling a viral infection all week and that the infection was the cause of the combatant’s weight gain.
UFC officials elected to pull Charles off of their card tonight after the promotion released information that Oliveira “fell ill” this morning after being seen by a doctor. The bout was to serve on the prelims of the free card tonight and with the combined 8 post-fight bonuses between the two it would’ve more than likely brought the crowd at Ledyard, Connecticut to their feet in anticipation for the main card.
The contest was to be a rematch of the pair’s first encounter at UFC on Versus 4 back in 2011 which was originally ruled a submission win for Oliveira but due to a second look noting that illegal knees were involved the bout was changed by the PSAC to a no-contest. That bout was the event’s Fight of the Night and many speculated the fight tonight would have the same electricity generated throughout it like the first battle did.
Oliveira was riding a 2 fight winning streak going into tonight’s affair submitting both Andy Ogele and Hatsu Hioki at UFC Fight Night 36 and UFC Fight Night 43 respectively to bring the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Juggernaut’s to 6 total octagon wins all coming by some form of submission. Lentz had won 4 out of his last 5 prior to tonight’s fight cancellation and his only recent loss was to UFC Featherweight Number 1 contender Chad “Money” Mendes at UFC on Fox 9 by way of unanimous decision.
However, he was able to reverse fortunes in his last outing against Manny Gamburyan at UFC Fight Night 40 by dominating the contest en route to a unanimous decision victory against The Ultimate Fighter 5 finalist.
