Joshua Van is out of next week’s UFC 327 card in Miami, and the flyweight title fight that was set to anchor the show has been pushed to UFC 328 on May 9 in Newark, N.J. The UFC announced the move Saturday night during the UFC Vegas 115 telecast.
That shift takes the 125-pound title bout out of UFC 327, which is still scheduled for April 11 at the Kaseya Center. The card now moves forward with Jiri Prochazka facing Carlos Ulberg for the vacant light heavyweight championship in the main event, while Azamat Murzakanov vs. Paulo Costa becomes the new co-main event.
Van, 16-2, won the belt in December when Alexandre Pantoja suffered an arm injury seconds into their UFC 323 bout. After Pantoja was sidelined, the UFC booked Van against Tatsuro Taira for April 11, setting up a matchup between two of the division’s most dangerous finishers.
Taira earned the shot the same night Van claimed the title, stopping Brandon Moreno with a second-round knockout. He has won eight of his nine octagon appearances, with six of those victories coming by stoppage. The delay gives the division a new calendar date, but it also removes the title fight from a Miami card that had been built around it.
For now, UFC 327 goes on without the original flyweight championship centerpiece, and the weight of that change falls on a card that has already been reshuffled once before fight night.
