Chris Daukaus out of UFC 289 fight against Khalil Rountree Jr.

Chris Daukaus’ light heavyweight debut will have to wait a bit longer.

According to MMAJunkie, Daukaus has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 289 fight against Khalil Rountree due to an injury. The fight was set to take place on June 10, in Vancouver, Canada on the ESPN prelims of the pay-per-view card. At this time, it’s uncertain if a replacement opponent will be found for Rountree.

Chris Daukaus (12-6) was set to make the move down to light heavyweight after three straight knockout losses at heavyweight. Daukaus suffered a 23-second knockout loss to Jairzinho Rozenstruik back in December and before that, was knocked out by Curtis Blaydes and Derrick Lewis in main event fights.

Daukaus is currently ranked 13th at heavyweight and started his UFC career 4-0 before the three straight setbacks. To begin his UFC tenure, he knocked out Parker Porter in the first round and then followed that up with first-round knockouts over Rodrigo Nascimento, Aleksei Oleinik, and a second-round knockout of Shamil Abdurakhimov.

Khalil Rountree (11-5 and one No Contest) is riding a three-fight winning streak and coming off a split decision win over Dustin Jacoby. Prior to that, he beat TKO’d Karl Roberson and Modestas Bukauskas by TKO. In his UFC career, Rountree is 7-5 and one No Contest and is ranked 13th at light heavyweight. He also holds notable wins over Eryk Anders, Paul Craig, and Gohkan Saki among others.

With Daukaus out of UFC 289, the fight card is as follows: