Hannah Cifers has withdrawn from her Feb. 27 fight.
Scheduled to take on Emily Whitmire in a strawweight fight at UFC Fight Night, Cifers (10-7 MMA, 2-5 UFC) has pulled out for an undisclosed reason.
Two people with knowledge of the change recently informed MMA Junkie of the withdrawal but asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Stepping in for Cifers will be Sam Hughes. A person with knowledge of the booking confirmed the replacement to MMA Junkie after an initial report by MMA Fighting.
Cifers competed four times in the first eight months of 2020. She lost all four outings inside the distance with three submissions and one TKO. The four-fight losing skid came on the heels of a two-fight winning streak.
Whitmire (4-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC) has been submitted in back-to-back fights against Amanda Ribas and Polyana Viana. In her UFC tenure, Whitmire holds wins over Jamie Moyle and Aleksandra Albu.
Against Whitmire, Hughes (5-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) will look to rebound from a doctor’s stoppage TKO loss to Tecia Torres this past December at UFC 256. That was Hughes’ promotional debut.
With the change, the UFC Fight Night lineup for Feb. 27 now includes:
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Ciryl Gane
- Raoni Barcelos vs. TBA
- William Knight vs. Alonzo Menifield
- Alexis Davis vs. Sabina Mazo
- Randy Brown vs. Alex Oliveira
- Sam Hughes vs. Emily Whitmire
- Alex Caceres vs. Kevin Croom
- Magomed Ankalaev vs. Nikita Krylov
- Montana De La Rosa vs. Mayra Bueno Silva
- Alexander Hernandez vs. Thiago Moises
- Vince Cachero vs. Ronnie Lawrence
