Joe Ellenberger has lost another opponent for his UFC debut as Johnny Case has pulled out of their fight at UFC Fight Night 44 and the search for a new opponent is underway.
UFC officials announced the change on Wednesday.
UFC Fight Night 44 will come from the AT&T Center and will be headlined by Cub Swanson meeting Jeremy Stephens in a scheduled five round featherweight bout.
Following the announcement of the fight change, TheMMAReport.com reached out to the UFC to get clarification on why Case is no longer in the fight. According to a UFC official, Case is off the card due to a medical issue that will prevent him from competing on June 28th.
Ellenberger (14-1) was initially scheduled to make his UFC debut in April at UFC 172 against Yancy Mederios, but Mederios was moved to another fight and Ellenberger was then booked to meet Vagner Rocha. However, Rocha suffered an injury the week of the fight and Ellenberger was pulled from the event.
Following his removal from UFC 172, the UFC announced shortly after that Ellenberger would now make his UFC debut on the June 28th card in San Antonio and would face Frank Trevino. Once again, his opponent would be out of the fight with an injury and the UFC recently announced that Case would replace Trevino in the bout. Now with Case out, the UFC will once again be looking for someone to face Ellenberger on short notice.
The current UFC Fight Night 44: Swanson vs. Stephens fight card is below.
Main Card: (Fox Sports 1 – 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT)
Cub Swanson (20-5) vs. Jeremy Stephens (23-9)
Kelvin Gastelum (8-0) vs. Nico Musoke (12-2, 1NC)
Andrew Craig (9-2) vs. Cezar Ferreira (7-3)
Ricardo Lamas (13-3) vs. Hacran Dias (21-2-1)
Clint Hester (10-3) vs. Antonio Brago Neto (9-1, 1NC)
Joe Ellenberger (14-1) vs. TBA
Preliminary Card: (Fox Sports 1 – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Colton Smith (3-3) vs. Carlos Diego Ferreira (9-0)
Johnny Beford (19-10, 1NC) vs. Cody Gibson (11-4)
Marcelo Guimaraes (8-1-1) vs. Andy Enz (7-1)
Ryan Benoit (7-3) vs. Ray Borg (6-1)
Preliminary Card: (Fight Pass – 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT_
Anthony Hamilton (12-2) vs. Oleksiy Oliynyk (48-9-1)