With Tresean Gore and Sean Brady out, Bo Nickal and Jack Della Maddalena now face undefeated replacements at UFC 290
UFC 290 has taken a couple hits over the last week, with two key match ups on the card having been cancelled.
However, the UFC brass quickly took action and found two of their bright young stars’ replacement opponents.
UFC 290 is to go down this weekend on July 8, 2023, live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The first of these cancellations came at 170 lbs when no. 8 ranked Sean Brady (15-1) withdrew from his bout with no. 14 ranked Jack Della Maddalena (14-2) due to an infection he has in his arm.
Then we had a cancellation at 185 lbs where Bo Nickal’s (4-0) opponent Tresean Gore (4-2) also withdrew himself from the event, as he tore a ligament in his wrist while finishing up his camp earlier in the week.
Instead, Della Maddalena will now face Josiah Harrell (7-0), and Nickal will face Val Woodburn (7-0).
It’s too bad those stellar match ups couldn’t have stayed together, especially Della Maddalena versus Brady, but at least the UFC got them undefeated finishers to replace their original opponents.
24-year-old Josiah Harrell, an OCL lightweight champion, has finished all seven of his opponents to date with 4 knockouts and 3 submissions, and he also had seven amateur bouts where he went undefeated with a record of 6-0-1 prior to his professional start in March of 2020.
Harrell boasts a 5-0 record with Ohio Combat League, and also a 1-0 record with each CFFC and LFA.
29-year-old Val Woodburn on the other hand, like Harrell, is also a champion joining the world’s leading mixed martial arts promotion, as he won the CNP middleweight strap in his most recent outing. All seven of his professional bouts to date come under the CNP banner, where he won 5 via knockout and 2 via decision.
Woodburn, like Harrell, also had a few amateur bouts, eight in fact, where he went 5-2-1 upon turning professional in February of 2020.
They aren’t the match ups we got excited for as soon as we saw they were announced, but we still get to see Bo Nickal and Jack Della Maddalena compete this weekend at UFC 290, and that is something we can be happy about.
If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to share it on social media!
