UFC 334 lost its third fight in a month on October 17, when insider Kevin K reported that bantamweight Adrian Yanez had withdrawn from his bout against Juan Diaz. No reason was given, by Yanez’s camp or by the UFC, for a pullout that hits a featured prelim bout on the November 14 card at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The withdrawal leaves the promotion searching for a way to fill the gap on a card that counted thirteen bouts only weeks ago. No replacement had been named as of this writing, and the New York show, already stripped of two other bouts, could drop further if nothing changes before fight night.
A Rough Stretch for Adrian Yanez
Yanez, 32, has already had two bouts fall apart because opponents withdrew on him, against Christian Quinonez and then Aaron Phillips. This marks the first time he has pulled out of a scheduled UFC fight himself. His last eighteen months have been bumpy: he missed nearly all of 2025 with an undisclosed health issue, returned in March at UFC Seattle to a contested majority draw against Ricky Simon, then got back in the win column in July at UFC 329 with a first-round knockout of Cody Garbrandt, a former UFC bantamweight champion, in what stood as his best result of an otherwise uneven stretch. The Diaz fight would have been his third of the year.
Two Other Bouts Already Scrapped
Yanez’s exit is the third cancellation on this card. A lightweight bout between Nazim Sadykhov and Jefferson Nascimento fell apart after Nascimento suffered an undisclosed injury in training. Sadykhov, who said he had been dealing with his own injury since the start of his camp but would not need surgery, chose to turn down a replacement opponent rather than fight through it. A middleweight bout between unbeaten prospect Baisangur Susurkaev, a training partner of Khamzat Chimaev, and Donte Johnson was also canceled, with no reason made public. Some reports suggest Stephen Thompson vs. Charles Radtke could move into the open prelim slot, though the UFC has not confirmed any change.
Josh Hokit Carries a Perfect Record Into a Heavyweight Title Shot
None of these cancellations touch the main event. Josh Hokit, born in Bakersfield, California, and now fighting out of Clovis, takes his unbeaten 10-0 record into a UFC heavyweight title fight against champion Ciryl Gane on November 14. Hokit signed with the UFC after a Contender Series win in August 2025 and has reeled off four straight wins inside the organization, including a decision over Curtis Blaydes and a finish of Derrick Lewis, results that pushed him to the fourth spot in the heavyweight rankings once the Gane fight was made official.
Gane, the Frenchman who holds the belt, won the interim title on June 14 with a second-round TKO of Alex Pereira, then was elevated to undisputed champion on September 14 after Tom Aspinall vacated it. Aspinall had been forced out of a planned rematch with Gane by another injury to his right eye, the same issue that had already disrupted his heavyweight reign earlier in the year. That vacancy is what opened the door for Hokit’s title shot, and it makes this Gane’s first defense since taking undisputed heavyweight gold, in what the UFC first unveiled during the UFC 331 broadcast as its headline act for the promotion’s return to Madison Square Garden.
Harrison-Nunes Headlines a Stacked Co-Main
The card keeps plenty of star power around the heavyweight title fight. Bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison, 19-1 with a four-fight win streak and a long run as PFL champion before she arrived in the UFC, defends her belt against Amanda Nunes, who is 23-5 and widely regarded as the greatest women’s fighter in MMA history. Nunes returns from retirement for this fight, having last competed at UFC 289 in 2023, when she beat Irene Aldana. The two were originally supposed to meet in January, before a neck injury sidelined Harrison for most of the year and pushed the matchup all the way to this card.
The full UFC 334 lineup, updated as changes come in, stays posted on mma-official.com’s UFC schedule for 2026, alongside the UFC rankings for anyone tracking how the heavyweight picture shifts after this run of withdrawals.
