Junior dos Santos has been forced to withdraw from the main event of a UFC card in Moscow after recently contracting a skin infection on his left shin, his manager Ana Claudia Guedes said Tuesday.
Dos Santos, who was scheduled to fight Alexander Volkov on Nov. 9, has been hospitalized for eight days for cellulitis, Guedes told ESPN.
He is currently at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but is hoping to be discharged in the next day or two. He has had two surgical procedures to slice and drain the infection, and it is still being drained, she said.
The UFC, wanting to keep the Russian-born Volkov on the card, has replaced dos Santos with Greg Hardy in the main event.
Guedes had been hoping that Volkov would be moved to an event in January, as the current expectation is that dos Santos will be healthy enough to fight early next year.
The 35-year-old dos Santos (21-5), a former UFC heavyweight champion, is coming off a TKO loss to Francis Ngannou in June.
Ngannou tweeted about potentially taking the fight Tuesday morning, and the UFC did inquire about the possibility of him stepping in on short notice, sources told ESPN.
Volkov (30-7) hasn't fought since his knockout loss to Derrick Lewis last October.