Ray Borg, Eric Spicely, Timur Valiev out of UFC on ESPN+ 31

UFC on ESPN+ 31 takes place this Saturday and the card has been hit by several last-minute changes including Ray Borg falling off the card.

According to MMAjunkie.com, Borg is off the card and out of his bantamweight bout against Nathan Manness for undisclosed reasons. The report says that Manness will stay on the card and take on UFC newcomer Johnny Munoz.

As well, middleweight Eric Spicely is out of his fight against Markus Perez. Charles Ontiveros will now take on Perez at 195lbs in a catchweight bout according to Farrah Hannoun. Additionally, Timur Valiev is out of his bantamweight bout against Jamall Emmers. The UFC was thankfully able to get a replacement opponent for Emmers, who now takes on Vincent Cachero.

The fight that everyone is going to be talking about falling off, though, is of course Borg. This is far from the first time that Borg has withdrew from a fight. He’s dealt with numerous issues throughout his career, including injuries, weight cutting issues, and his young son Anthony’s battle with health issues. Borg has no doubt been through a difficult time in his career, but at this point, it’s hard to trust him to make it to the cage.

The UFC matchmakers have always liked Ray Borg and have given him more rope than anyone else who has pulled out of as many fights as he has. It will be interesting to hear the reason he is pulling out of this fight against Manness. If it’s something that is potentially weight-cut related, that could seal the deal for the UFC to finally make a move. But as of right now, it’s undisclosed reasons and we have no idea what happened.

As for Valiev, he had to withdraw from his UFC debut due to undisclosed reasons, and Spicley also dropped off the card due to a tough weight cut.