UFC president Dana White confirmed Strickland’s exit from the card following the Contender Series on Tuesday night while adding that the promoiton will not seek a replacement opponent for Cannonier. UFC Fight Night 212 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and also includes a women’s flyweight clash between Viviane Araujo and Alexa Grasso as well as a men’s 125-pound tilt pitting Askar Askarov against Brandon Royval.
Strickland had a bid for title contention shot down at UFC 276, as he suffered a first-round KO defeat to former Glory Kickboxing champ Alex Pereira in his most recent Octagon appearance. That defeat snapped a six-bout winning streak for the 31-year-old Team Quest representative.
Cannonier is coming off a failed attempt at middleweight gold at UFC 276, where he dropped a five-round verdict to Israel Adesanya on July 2. Prior to that, “The Killa Gorilla” had been victorious in five of six promotional appearances, earning wins over the likes of Derek Brunson, Kelvin Gastelum, Jack Hermansson and Anderson Silva.