Vicente Luque and Ian Garry were scheduled for UFC 296 before Garry withdrew due to illness. Many had assumed that when Garry was ready to fight again, they'd rebook the two former teammates. But that wasn't the case.
On Saturday night, after UFC 296, White announced several new fights for March 9 at Kaseya Center In Miami. One of those fights was Garry versus Geoff Neal.
But why?
Well, according to UFC president Dana White, Luque turned down the fight, and several others.
“We offered Luque a bunch of fights,” White said at the UFC 296 post-fight press conference. “He turned them all down.”
Perhaps Luque didn't want to wait another three months to fight and was hoping for a match-up sooner. Perhaps he's just fed up and needs some time off.
Unfortunately Luque hasn't reacted to the slight just yet so it's unclear where his mindset is.
UFC 299 fight card (so far)
- Champion Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera – for bantamweight title
- Gilbert Burns vs. Jack Della Maddalena
- Jailton Almeida vs. Curtis Blaydes
- Ian Garry vs. Geoff Neal
- Song Yadong vs. Petr Yan
- Pedro Munhoz vs. Kyler Phillips
- Asu Almabaev vs. CJ Vergara
- Maycee Barber vs. Katlyn Chookagian
- Rafael dos Anjos vs. Mateusz Gamrot
- Lauren Murphy vs. Karine Silva
- Kevin Holland vs. Michael Page