Valentine Woodburn Replaces Injured Tresean Gore, Faces Bo Nickal at UFC 290

Bo Nickal has received a last-minute opponent change ahead of his sophomore Octagon appearance at UFC 290.

The highly-touted middleweight prospect will face Valentine Woodburn on Saturday after Tresean Gore, Nickal’s original opponent, announced on his Instagram stories that a torn ligament in his wrist forced him out of the middleweight bout. Eurosport was first to report the new booking.

“Unfortunately, I am out of my fight for this weekend and I’m extremely sad about it, but the truth is I’m not healthy and I may have to get surgery that will have me out six months to a year,” Gore wrote. “Torn scafoid ligament in one of my wrists. I feel extremely bummed but I will still be champion and I will still prove I’m better than this dude and I’m an elite fighter, but I have to get healthy before anything.

“As of now, I’m avoiding the surgery but I have rounds of stem cell treatment I have to do until I heal up.”

Woodburn was expected to compete on Dana White’s Contender Series in August before getting his call up to the big show. The 29-year-old Fusion X-Cel representative is 7-0 since making his professional debut in 2020, with all of his appearances coming under the Florida-based Combat Night Pro banner.

A three-time NCAA national champion wrestler at Penn State University, Nickal generated a considerable amount of hype with back-to-back first-round submission victories on the Contender Series in 2022. That carried over into the Las Vegas-based promotion, as the 27-year-old dispatched Jamie Pickett with an arm-triangle 2:54 into the opening stanza at UFC 285 this past March.

UFC 290 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a featherweight title tilt between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez. Nickal vs. Woodburn is slated to open to the main card, which airs on pay-per-view via ESPN+ beginning at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.