By Dane McGuire
Ryan Spann unexpectedly lost his marquee bout opposite Nikita Krylov set for UFC Fight Night 220 at the start of the main card. Krylov was unable to fight due to an as yet undisclosed foodborne illness.
“I had USADA in the back, and my coach stormed in yelling for me,” Spann told MMA Junkie and other reporters backstage. “It was him, Hunter (Campbell) and Sean (Shelby) letting me know that I wasn’t going to be able to fight.”
UFC’s Megan Olivi, noted Krylov arrived at the facilities early to receive fluids and treatment for a foodborne illness, but was determined to be unhealthy to fight.
“I wouldn’t call it a wasted camp because we weren’t training for this specific fight,” Spann said. “We’re in champ camp. The plan was to go back to work Monday either way. So I guess that’s what we’re going to have to do. So, it isn’t wasted. The disappointment comes from me not getting to show off some of the sh*t we’ve been doing.”
“They invested a lot of time in me and I wanted to be able to pay them back with a beautiful performance,” Spann said.
“Sh*t happens, that’s what my brother always says,” Spann said. “It’s just – f*ck.”
As a result, Brendan Allen and Andre Muniz filled the main event spot. Allen would go on to pick up the rear-naked choke victory at 4:25 of Round 3.
“I had so many people sending me so much hate stuff and ‘you’re going to lose’ and this and that — to all the people that supported me, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Allen said afterwards. “Thank you so much. To everyone that doubted me, two [middle fingers] and I’m laughing to the bank, baby.
“I’m very blessed that Andre took the fight. So much respect to that guy. Thank you so much.”
“I’m trying to fight everybody in this witch,” Allen said. “I want to run it with Sean Strickland, let’s run that back. Chris Curtis, let’s run that back.
“If neither of those two work, let’s go Jack Hermansson, we were supposed to run it a couple of times, let’s officially run that or Dricus Du Plessis, no matter what happens next weekend [at UFC 285], you’re still ahead of me. Let’s get this s***.”