Nurullo Aliev announces UFC 295 withdrawal due to injury

Nurullo Aliev won’t be participating in UFC 295 as previously anticipated.

In an unexpected turn of events, lightweight fighter Nurullo Aliev announced his withdrawal from the preliminary card matchup against Mateusz Rebecki due to a leg injury, just eight days before the November 11 pay-per-view event at Madison Square Garden.

Despite only having one UFC fight and a Dana White’s Contender Series appearance under his belt, Aliev has already built a substantial fanbase and strong social media presence in his home country of Tajikistan. He made his debut in February and secured a victory by majority decision against Rafael Alves.

Aliev took to Instagram to explain the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his withdrawal: “Over the last few months due to some life circumstances, I have taken a break in my career. I haven’t stopped training hard though. I never looked for a comfortable opponent. When UFC offered me a worthy opponent, I gladly agreed. … I prepared particularly hard for this battle. Everything went according to plan, the best gyms, coaches and nutritionists. … Unfortunately, a couple of days ago, I injured my leg. After the examination, the doctor from UFC was banned and did not consent for the fight.”

It remains uncertain whether Rebecki will still participate in the event. Rebecki, who also has a background in Dana White’s Contender Series, has achieved victories over Nick Fiore and Loik Radzhabov during his UFC tenure.

The current lineup for UFC 295 includes:

• Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka – for the vacant light heavyweight title

• Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tom Aspinall – for the interim heavyweight title

• Jessica Andrade vs. Mackenzie Dern

• Diego Lopes vs. Pat Sabatini

• Matt Frevola vs. Benoit Saint Denis

• Kevin Borjas vs. Joshua Van

• Stephen Erceg vs. Matt Schnell

• Loopy Godinez vs. Tabatha Ricci

• Jared Gordon vs. Mark Madsen

• Nurullo Aliev vs. Mateusz Rebecki

• Viacheslav Borshchev vs. Nazim Sadykhov

• Dennis Buzukja vs. Jamall Emmers

• John Castaneda vs. Kyung Ho Kang

For more information on the event, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 295.

Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie