Vinicius Oliveira is heading to Las Vegas despite the fact he no longer has an opponent for UFC Vegas 87 on March 2.
Oliveira told MMA Fighting on Friday, minutes away from boarding a flight to Las Vegas, that the promotion informed his team that Yanis Ghemmouri is out of the card due to injury. MMA Fighting could not confirm the information with Ghemmouri.
UFC Vegas 87 will take place at the UFC APEX and feature Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev in the main event.
Oliveira, however, accused Ghemmouri decided to pull out of the card in fear of missing weight.
“It looks like it was an injury, but I don’t think it was,” Oliveira said. “He’s been fighting at 145 as of late and I think he wouldn’t be able to make the weight, so he ‘suffered’ an injury on purpose so he can’t fight. The shame of missing weight would be greater.”
Ghemmouri has competed at both bantamweight and featherweight throughout his MMA career, and was set to go down do 135 pounds on March 2 after losing his UFC debut to William Gomis at 145 pounds.
A former UAE Warriors champion who joined the UFC after an impressive knockout victory at Dana White’s Contender Series in September, Oliveira said he remains focused “because I know the UFC will find me an opponent to fight and I’m ready for anything inside the cage.”
“If there’s a fight, I’ll knock the guy out in the first round and there’s a good chance I win a bonus because my fights are always fun” Oliveira continued, “If there were bonuses on the Contender Series they would be mine, and it will be no different in the UFC. My fights are always fun to watch — even my enemies like to watch me. It’s going to be an incredible first-round knockout and likely a bonus.”
