UFC 296 loses second fight to illness within 24 hours of Ian Garry's pull-out

Less than a day after Ian Garry withdrew from his highly anticipated fight with Vicente Luque after contracting pneumonia, another welterweight bout has been scrapped from the card due to a health-related concern.

Randy Brown and Muslim Salikhov were expected to take part in the event opener. But after falling ill to an as-of-yet undisclosed illness, Brown was forced to pull out of his fight with Salikhov.

Brown was hoping to build a winning streak for himself, as a victory over Salikhov would have been his second straight victory after his recent unanimous decision win over Wellington Turman. Meanwhile, the 39-year-old Dagestani is at the end of his career and coming off a unanimous decision loss to Nicolas Dalby.

It was his chance to bounce back from his previous defeat and punctuate the twilight of his career with a win. While the bout is no longer taking place at UFC 296, and Salikhov may not get a replacement, the matchup with Brown could be rescheduled for a later date.

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Which UFC 296 bout was upgraded to the main card after Vicente Luque vs. Ian Garry cancellation?

After Ian Garry contracted pneumonia and was forced to withdraw from UFC 296, fans wondered if his opponent, Vicente Luque, would face a short-notice opponent. Their hopes were ignited when he and Kevin Holland verbally agreed to face each other. Unfortunately, there's no official word yet on that matchup.

Instead, Bryce Mitchell vs. Josh Emmett, which was the feature bout of the preliminary card, has been upgraded to the main card.