An undisclosed injury has forced Alptekin Ozkilic to pull out of his UFC Fight Night 39 bout against Dustin Ortiz and the UFC will move Ortiz to a different fight card.
The change was announced by the UFC on early Thursday afternoon.
UFC Fight Night 39 will take place next Friday in Abu Dhabi and will be headlined by a heavyweight bout as former UFC interim champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira meets Ultimate Fighter 10 winner Roy Nelson.
Ozkilic (9-2) entered the UFC last year and won his debut when he defeated Darren Uyenoyama by split decision. He ended up taking a fight on short notice in January and had his fourth fight winning streak snapped when he lost a decision to Louis Smolka.
Ortiz (12-3) was also going to enter this fight following a defeat as he was defeated by John Moraga at UFC Fight Night 35. Just like Ozkilic, the defeat snapped a four fight winning streak and he won his UFC debut in November with a TKO win over Jose Maria Tome.
With Ozkilic and Ortiz bout begin off the fight card, the event will go forward with nine fights and the current fight card is below.
Main Card: (Fight Pass – 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (34-8-1, 1NC) vs. Roy Nelson (19-9)
Clay Guida (30-11) vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri (33-7-2)
Ryan LaFlare (10-0) vs. John Howard (22-8)
Ramsey Nijem (9-4) vs. Beneil Dariush (7-0)
Preliminary Card: (Fight Pass – 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT)
Daniel Omielanczuk (16-3-1, 1NC) vs. Jared Rosholt (9-1)
Rani Yahya (19-8) vs. Johnny Bedford (19-11-1)
Trevor Smith (11-4) vs. Thales Leites (22-4)
Andrew Craig (9-2) vs. Chris Camozzi (19-7)
Jim Alers (12-1) vs. Alan Omer (18-3)