Jessica Aguilar vs. Jodie Esquibel Removed from UFC Fight Night Utica Card

A scheduled strawweight bout between Jessica Aguilar and Jodie Esquibel has been removed from UFC Fight Night 131 hours before the event.

The promotion announced the cancellation in a statement on Friday:

"Due to a medical issue involving strawweight athlete Jessica Aguilar, the New York State Athletic Commission has cancelled her scheduled bout against Jodie Esquibel,” the statement read. “Tonight's UFC Fight Night: Rivera vs. Moraes card will proceed with 12 bouts, beginning at 6:55 pm ET / 3:55 pm PT.”

The UFC didn’t disclose the medical issue that forced Aguilar off the card. However, Din Thomas, Aguilar’s coach, told MMAjunkie.com that the New York State Athletic Commission elected to pull the fighter from the card due to chapped lips.

“[Thursday], the commission doctor saw her lips and thought it may have been some sort of infection,” Thomas said. “They rushed her to a dermatologist as soon as she stepped off the scale. The dermatologist said nothing was wrong and cleared her to fight – gave her a doctor’s note and everything. Now today, the commission doctor saw her and told her she can’t fight.”

Aguilar told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani that both she and Esquibel have agreed to rebook the bout as soon as possible.

Here’s a photo, taken moments ago and provided to me by Aguilar, of Aguilar and Esquibel backstage. She said they both agreed that they want to re-book the fight ASAP. They were already at the venue when they got the news. pic.twitter.com/Wa2Pf6CIps

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 1, 2018

UFC Fight Night 131 takes place at Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, N.Y., and is headlined by a bantamweight tilt between Jimmie Rivera and Marlon Moraes. Aguilar vs. Esquibel was slated to be the featured matchup on the UFC Fight Pass prellims.