Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nassourdine Imavov scrapped from UFC 273, Ilir Latifi vs. Aleksei Oleinik added to card

An intriguing middleweight fight has been removed from next weekend’s UFC 273 event, with visa issues forcing Nassourdine Imavov (11-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) to withdraw from a planned clash with Kelvin Gastelum (16-8 MMA, 11-8-1 UFC).

UFC officials today announced the news, as well as revealing that a heavyweight clash between Ilir Latifi (15-8 MMA, 8-6 UFC) and Aleksei Oleinik (59-16-1 MMA, 8-7 UFC) that was scrapped just hours before this past weekend’s UFC on ESPN 33 event is now booked for UFC 273, which takes place April 9 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla.

Due to injury, Irene Aldana has been removed from her bantamweight bout with Aspen Ladd. Replacing Aldana will be UFC veteran and former title challenger Raquel Pennington.

Additionally, due to visa issues, Nassourdine Imavov has been removed from his middleweight bout with Kelvin Gastelum. As a result, this bout has been canceled from the card.

A heavyweight fight between Ilir Latifi and Aleksei Oleinik has been added to the card.

The Ladd vs. Pennington matchup was previously announced by the promotion.

With the changes to the card, the UFC 273 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

• Champ Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chan Sung Jung – for featherweight title
• Champ Aljamain Sterling vs. Interim champ Petr Yan – to unify bantamweight title
• Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev
• Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres
• Ilir Latifi vs. Aleksei Oleinik

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)

• Aspen Ladd vs. Raquel Pennington
• Ian Garry vs. Darian Weeks
• Dricus Du Plessis vs. Anthony Hernandez
• Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Marcin Tybura

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)

• Mickey Gall vs. Mike Malott
• Julio Arce vs. Daniel Santos
• Mark Madsen vs. Vinc Pichel
• Kay Hansen vs. Piera Rodriguez