Kevin Lee Withdraws from Sean Brady Scrap at UFC 264 Due to Injury

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A main card tilt on the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s upcoming pay-per-view event will have to wait a little longer to go down.

Per Sean Brady (14-0) on his Instagram on Thursday, his opponent Kevin Lee (18-6) has been forced out of their UFC 264 meeting on July 10. According to Brady and Ariel Helwani, Lee suffered a rib injury in training, and that the fight has been pulled altogether from the event. Instead of Brady facing a new opponent on short notice, he and his team are looking to schedule the fight with Lee at an event in August, possibly for UFC 265 on Aug. 7.

Unbeaten as a pro, Brady has surged while in the UFC, with four wins over names like Court McGee and Jake Matthews. The Renzo Gracie Philly standout most recently submitted Matthews with an arm-triangle choke in March, and before then, he put Christian Aguilera to sleep with a guillotine choke in August 2020. Making his way to the promotion largely by winning his way through Cage Fury Fighting Championships, Brady won the CFFC welterweight crown over Tanner Saraceno in 2017, and defended it twice against in 2017 and 2019.

Lee has not competed since the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as he and future lightweight champ Charles Oliveira locked horns on the UFC’s last event in March 2020 before its hiatus. Prior to falling short against Oliveira, Lee rebounded from the first losing streak of his career by starching Gregor Gillespie with a head kick. “The Motown Phenom” sports wins throughout his career over the likes of Edson Barboza, Michael Chiesa and the aforementioned Matthews.

UFC 264 will continue on July 10 with a trilogy headliner between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor. A rarity for the promotion as of late, no belts will be on the line throughout the night, with a co-headliner at welterweight between former challengers Gilbert Burns and Stephen Thompson. Other main card pairings currently consist of Irene Aldana vs. Yana Kunitskaya at bantamweight, and Sean O'Malley vs. Louis Smolka also at bantamweight.