Hurricane Milton forces UFC Vegas 98 fighter to pull out of event, new opponent named
The devastation of Hurricane Milton has reached the fight card of UFC Vegas 98 this weekend. The UFC officially announced that heavyweight fan favorite Chris 'Beastboy' Barnett has pulled out of his fight with Junior Tafa due to "issues" caused by the storm.
Barnett currently resides in Tampa, Florida, which is in the direct path of Hurricane Milton as it hits the area this week. Flights would have been disallowed or canceled because of this.
The UFC scrambled for a replacement and found divisional newcomer Sean Sharaf (4-0) to face the heavyweight KO machine Junior Tafa at the Apex this weekend. Tafa himself was a replacement fighter for his bout when Barnett's original opponent, former LFA heavyweight champ Waldo Cortes-Acosta pulled out in late September.
The rest of the main card of UFC Vegas 98 remains intact
Aside from Chris Barnett's departure from the card, it looks like the rest of the UFC Vegas 98 fight card is good to go this weekend. In the co-main event of the night, UFC middleweight veteran Brad Tavares will finally get to face South Korean star Park Jun-Yong. Their UFC Vegas 94 bout last July was scrapped due to Park not getting medical clearance during the weigh-ins.
Both Tavares and Park are coming off losses and are looking to get back in the winning column to gain some momentum.
In the main event of the night, possible title implications are at stake as No. 1-ranked UFC flyweight Brandon Royval faces the undefeated No. 5-ranked Tatsuro Taira. Royval is coming off a massive win against former two-time UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno last February.
As for Taira, the Japanese dynamo is currently 16-0 with six straight wins in the UFC, with four of those six wins coming by way of stoppage. His last performance was a second-round TKO win over former title challenger Alex Perez last June.
With his win over Perez, Taira became the first and only UFC fighter born in the 2000s to compete and win a UFC main event. This kid's going places.
UFC Vegas 98 takes place inside the UFC's Apex in Enterprise, Nevada on Oct. 12.