Daily briefing: Yanez confirms UFC 334 exit; Stevenson leaves Zuffa Boxing

Adrian Yanez has confirmed he is out of his UFC 334 bantamweight fight with Juan Diaz on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden. The fight was reported off on Saturday; on Monday Yanez posted a hospital-bed photo to his Instagram Story and wrote that he would no longer fight Diaz: "Really wanted to fight at MSG, the history there... I'll be back soon tho." No reason for the withdrawal has been given, and we are not speculating on one. Bloody Elbow reported that Diaz is expected to stay on the card against an opponent not yet named.

Bo Nickal told The Ariel Helwani Show that lingering injuries he declined to specify, described as a precaution, were behind the move of his UFC 335 fight with Joe Pyfer; Bloody Elbow's article says the bout is now a February main event in Cleveland (Oct. 19). Pyfer had said Nickal was the one who needed time to recover. We found no UFC statement. Separately, Dana White said after UFC Edmonton that 12 of the 13 fights ended inside the distance (UFC.com, Oct. 19). We found no confirmed change to UFC.com's standard rankings page.

Shakur Stevenson has left Zuffa Boxing without fighting for it. The undefeated WBO light welterweight champion said on his YouTube channel that he asked for his release and it was granted over the weekend, and that he is starting his own promotional company. He had been announced as a Zuffa Boxing signing in July. Stevenson said he had been in camp about eight weeks for fights that had not happened and that he was not pointing fingers. MMA Fighting and Bloody Elbow both reported it.

UFC, Disney+ and ESPN announced a multi-year exclusive media rights deal in the Philippines. ESPN on Disney+ will show all UFC events live, starting with UFC 333 on Saturday, Oct. 24. UFC.com gave the Philippine times as prelims at 10 p.m. PHT and the main card at 2 a.m. PHT.

RAF revealed its first crossover pound-for-pound rankings on Monday, with Colby Covington first, Henry Cejudo second and Arman Tsarukyan third; Khamzat Chimaev and Merab Dvalishvili are fourth and fifth. These are RAF's own wrestling-promotion rankings, not UFC rankings. RAF 14 is in Las Vegas on Friday, Oct. 23, with Tsarukyan against Dillon Danis for the inaugural middleweight crossover title and Chimaev against Robbie Lawler in the co-main event, MMA Fighting reported. Bloody Elbow also covered the rankings.

Ian Machado Garry will fight again "in about a month," Ariel Helwani said on his show, as relayed by Bloody Elbow. Helwani also ruled out Mike Malott as the opponent. No fight, date or opponent is announced, and we found no second outlet with its own reporting.

Magomed Ankalaev told BOSTANOV MMA that talks have taken place about a light heavyweight fight with Dricus du Plessis, and said du Plessis wants to move up, Bloody Elbow reported. Ankalaev also said it looks unlikely to happen this year. Neither du Plessis nor the UFC has commented in the sources we read.

UFC heavyweight Robelis Despaigne is due to defend his Karate Combat title on Dec. 5 in Miami, Karate Combat president Asim Zaidi said on a Karate Combat broadcast, Bloody Elbow reported. Commentator Ben Davis said on X that the UFC and Karate Combat agreed this when Despaigne re-signed. The UFC has not commented in the source we read.

Next card: UFC 333: Volkanovski vs. Evloev, Etihad Arena, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, Saturday, Oct. 24. UK times (UFC.com, as read Oct. 19): early prelims 3 p.m., prelims 5 p.m., main card 7 p.m. BST. Main event: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev, featherweight title. Co-main event: Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili, bantamweight title.

Prices, main card, decimal with American in brackets, from BestFightOdds via our archive. Opening is the first snapshot the archive holds for that bout (Aug. 16 for the two title fights, book not recorded; Oct. 15, BetWay, for the others); current is the best sportsbook price in the 01:53 UTC Oct. 20 snapshot, book named. The comparison is the 23:53 UTC Oct. 18 snapshot (the archive holds no snapshot between then and 22:53 UTC Oct. 19). Prices only, not betting advice.

• Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev: Volkanovski 1.83 (-120) to 1.91 (-110) (Caesars), no move; Evloev 1.91 (-110) (Caesars), no move from opening, from 1.95 (-105) on Oct. 18.
• Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili: Yan 1.67 (-150) to 1.57 (-175) (Caesars), no move since Oct. 18; Dvalishvili 2.20 (+120) to 2.50 (+150) (BetWay), no move since Oct. 18.
• Lone'er Kavanagh vs. Ramazan Temirov: Kavanagh 1.91 (-110) (Caesars), no move; Temirov 1.91 (-110) (Caesars), no move from opening, from 1.95 (-105) on Oct. 18.
• Alexander Volkov vs. Rizvan Kuniev: Volkov 1.72 (-138) to 1.87 (-115) (Caesars), no move since Oct. 18; Kuniev 2.10 (+110) to 1.97 (-103) (BetRivers), from 1.96 (-104) on Oct. 18.
• Aaron Pico vs. Losene Keita: Pico 2.00 (+100) to 1.91 (-110) (Caesars), from 2.00 (+100) on Oct. 18; Keita 1.80 (-125) to 1.96 (-104) (FanDuel), from 1.94 (-106) on Oct. 18.

For FightIQ's read on each fight, see the UFC 333 card page.