Just as soon as Brennan Ward returned to the combat sports world, he’s back out.
Ward, who retired from MMA last year, recently signed to fight Chris Leben next week at Bare Knuckle FC 6 in Tampa, Fla. But the promotion announced Wednesday that Ward has withdrawn from the June 22 fight due to unspecified reasons. So Leben will instead square off with Dakota Cochrane.
Cochrane (32-13 MMA) is best remembered for a brief cameo on “The Ultimate Fighter 15,” where he lost a first-round fight to James Vick via split decision. Cochrane later had a run in Bellator.
This marks Cochrane’s second time replacing Ward in a bare-knuckle fight. He subbed for Ward at the ill-fated World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation card in November and knocked out Johnny Hendricks in the second round.
Ward, for his part, is 2-0 in bare-knuckle competition. He defeated Phil Baroni via TKO on the same BKFF show as Ward, then jumped over to BKFC and steamrolled Justin Baesman in 25 seconds at BFKC 5.
The card is headlined by a much-anticipated grudge match between Paulie Malignaggi and Artem Lobov, and also features Johnny Bedford vs. Reggie Bennett for the inaugural BKFC lightweight title.
