UFC 298 has an unexpected opening.
“TUF 29” middleweight runner up Tresean Gore is out due to a shoulder injury, he revealed in a series of Instagram stories Wednesday.
One of the stories featured Dr. John Tokish, of the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, who explained Gore’s injuries, which include a labral tear, paralabral cyst, and likely Grade 2 AC joint separation.
“I don’t think he’s going to be ready in 12 days to be able to protect himself,” Tokish said.
Gore (4-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) was expected to fight AJ Dobson (7-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) on the Feb. 17 preliminary card at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
“Gutted posting this, but the UFC didn’t clear me to fight. I initially was gonna fight anyway, but my Coach made me (get) a MRI because he didn’t want me fighting with one Arm!” Gore wrote. “Man I don’t understand why some things happen, but it’s all on God’s time not mine! I will be back and when the time is Right, I will be P4P. I can’t allow injury’s to kill my dream!”
It’s unclear if Dobson will remain on the card, although he teased fight news Wednesday on Instagram.
With the change, the UFC 298 fight card includes:
Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria
Henry Cejudo vs. Merab Dvalishvili
Paulo Costa vs. Robert Whittaker
Ian Garry vs. Geoff Neal
Anthony Hernandez vs. Roman Kopylov
Mackenzie Dern vs. Amanda Lemos
Andrea Lee vs. Miranda Maverick
Marcos Rogerio vs. Justin Tafa
Rinya Nakamura vs. Carlos Vera
Zhang Mingyang vs. Brendson Ribeiro
Oban Elliott vs. Val Woodburn
Danny Barlow vs. Yusaku Kinoshita
AJ Dobson vs. Tresean Gore
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 298.
