Darrick Minner Pulls Out of UFC on ESPN 10 Fight Due to Illness From Weight Cut

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship card this weekend has lost a fight the day before it was set to go down.

On Friday, Darrick Minner announced on his Facebook page that he has had to pull out of his UFC on ESPN 10 rematch against Jordan Griffin due to an illness related to his weight cut. The cut down to featherweight went sour on Minner, and the UFC Performance Institute could not help him enough to keep the bout intact. The matchup canceled by the UFC, Griffin did hit the scales at 146 pounds and will presumably receive at least his show purse.

Griffin squared off against Minner at LFA 34 in 2018, and he emerged victorious by armbar in the second round. “The Native Psycho” was looking for his second win in 2020, as he put T.J. Brown to sleep with a guillotine choke in February to snap a two-fight skid. The Roufusport product earned a spot on the UFC roster by tapping out Maurice Mitchell on Season 2 of Dana White's Contender Series.

Minner was searching for his first win inside the Octagon, and it will now have to wait. The Nebraska native made his promotional debut on the same card that saw Griffin submit Brown, although Minner was not as lucky. Grant Dawson tapped him with a rear-naked choke to spoil the short-notice replacement’s first trip to the UFC cage. Throughout his career, Minner holds a finish rate of 92 percent including 21 submissions, but on the other side, eight of his 11 defeats have also come by submission.

Minner’s full statement on Facebook reads as follows:

Sad to say but tomorrow I won’t be fighting. Long story short the weight cut was going super smooth, everything on point. Came back to nap before I hit the last 5 lbs. Woke up after a two hour nap, started throwing up and didn’t stop for 6-7 hours. Still throwing up this morning but it has slowed down. The UFC performance institute nutrition and staff tried everything to get my stomach under control before they had to make the call to start rehydrating. Shout out to them, they are super knowledgeable and professional. I want to apologize to my opponent Jordan Griffin and his camp, stepped up to give us a fight. We will get this set up at a later date. Thanks to the UFC for giving me another opportunity, we will get back to work and be ready for the next one. Sorry my body couldn’t make this happen. Thanks to my training partners, corners, coaches and manager for making sure everything was on point on less then 2 weeks notice again. After 35 pro fights and never having to pull out I’m super upset and disappointed. Thanks all of #teamminner for always having my back, love you guys.

UFC on ESPN 10 will go down on June 13 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Headlining the card may be a women’s flyweight battle between Jessica Eye and Cynthia Calvillo that saw Eye miss weight. Serving as the co-main event should be a middleweight grudge match between Marvin Vettori and Karl Roberson -- although Roberson also missed weight by a great deal and that matchup might be jeopardy.