Brandon Girtz has withdrawn from the Bellator 227 co-main event against Jon Tuck with six days until the event.
On Saturday, Girtz (16-8 MMA, 8-6 BMMA) revealed that he’s been dealing with a lingering injury that he was forced to finally give into. Thus, he’s unable to compete in his lightweight co-headliner against Tuck (10-5 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) on Friday’s card at 3Arena in Dublin.
MMA Junkie verified the news with a Bellator official after Girtz’s post on Instagram.
Unfortunately today instead of traveling to Ireland to fight, I’m starting a new journey to recover from an injury sustained a couple days ago, I was hoping for good news but not this time. This is just a small detour in my journey and I’ll be back with full strength very soon. Life has a plan for me and I’m just rolling with it. God bless and I’ll keep everyone updated
Given the short-notice nature of the withdrawal, Bellator officials confirmed that Tuck will not get a replacement opponent, postponing his debut fight with the organization.
The latest Bellator 227 card now includes:
MAIN CARD (Paramount, DAZN, 9 p.m. ET) (via tape delay)
- Benson Henderson vs. Myles Jury
- Kiefer Crosbie vs. Hugo Pereira
- Leah McCourt vs. Kerry Hughes
- Frans Mlambo vs. Dominique Wooding
PRELIMINARY CARD (MMA Junkie, 11:45 a.m. ET)
- Danni Neilan vs. Camila Rivarola
- Ciaran Clarke vs. George Courtney
- Will Fleury vs. Norbert Novenyi
- Richie Smullen vs. Sean Tobin
- Patrik Pietila vs. Ryan Roddy
- Ilias Bulaid vs. Vitalic Maiboroda
- Lee Chadwick vs. Karl Moore
- Keith McCabe vs. Philip Mulpeter
- Jake Hadley vs. Blaine O’Driscoll
- Adam Gustab vs. Dylan Logan
- Ian Coughlan vs. Constantin Gnusariev
