Alessio Di Chirico vs. Roman Dolidze off of June 5 UFC event

Alessio Di Chirico won’t be fighting Roman Dolidze on June 5 as planned.

The middleweights were expected to face one another on an upcoming UFC card at UFC APEX in Las Vegas, but on Thursday Dolidze announced via Instagram that Di Chirico was out of the fight.

Though Dolidze stated that he hopes to remain on the June 5 card, a source with knowledge of the change told MMA Fighting that Di Chirico’s withdrawal is due to a minor injury. The plan would be for the bout to be rescheduled for an event in August, which Di Chirico has already agreed to. It appears, per Dolidze’s social media post, that he seems adamant about remaining on the June 5 fight card.

Dolidze (8-1) is looking to rebound from the first setback of his pro career, a unanimous decision loss to Trevin Giles in March. Prior to that, Dolidze won his first two UFC bouts at light heavyweight, defeating John Allan and Khadis Ibragimov.

Di Chirico (13-5) is coming off of a much-needed win over Joaquin Buckley. The Italian fighter was on a three-fight losing streak before scoring a highlight-reel head kick KO of Buckley at UFC on ABC 1 in January.