Dricus du Plessis off UFC 273 card as opponent bails on fight

The disappointing news is that UFC 273, UFC middleweight Kelvin Gastelum will not be fighting in UFC 273 due to an unknown injury, leaving South Africa's Dricus du Plessis without a fight.

Due to an unknown injury, Gastelum has been ruled out of the upcoming pay-per-view event against short notice substitute Dricus du Plessis. The UFC officially announced the news on Friday evening. UFC 273 was held at the Y Star Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla.

Gastelum (17-8) was forced to withdraw from his match against Du Plessis (16-2) in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, April 9, according to UFC officials.

Gastelum (16-8 MMA, 11-8 UFC) was originally scheduled to meet with Massourdin Imavov at the event, but due to visa issues, Imavov was unable to compete as scheduled.

The former interim middleweight title challenger wanted to stay on the Gastelum card and was replaced by du Plessis (16-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) from his original match against Anthony Hernandez on the same card.

Du Plessis also had to fight in UFC 273, actually against Chris Curtis.

Curtis returned and was replaced by UFC's Anthony Hernandez.

Then, when Gastelum lost to their opponent, the UFC fought a battle of Du Plessis-Hernandez against Gastelum in favor of Du Plessis.

Now, no one will appear on the middleweight card.

The main competition in UFC 273 will be a featherweight fight between champion Alexander Volkanowski and Chan Sung Jung aka 'The Korean Zombie'.

Men's bantamweight champion Jimenez Sterling will face former champion Peter Yan in the rematch of the co-host event.

With the removal, the UFC 273 lineup now includes:

• Alexander Volkanovski v Chan Sung Jung – for featherweight title

• Aljamain Sterling v Petr Yan – for bantamweight title

• Gilbert Burns v Khamzat Chimaev

• Mackenzie Dern v Tecia Torres

• Ian Garry v Darian Weeks

• Jairzinho Rozenstruik v Marcin Tybura

• Aspen Ladd v Raquel Pennington

• Mickey Gall v Mike Mallot

• Vinc Pichel v Mark O. Madsen

• Aleksei Oleinik v Jared Vanderaa

• Anthony Hernandez v Josh Fremd

• Kay Hansen v Piera Rodriguez

• Julio Arce v Daniel Santos