Rogerio Bontorin hospitalized, fight with Manel Kape scratched from UFC 275 lineup

The UFC 275 main card has taken a hit.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that the flyweight bout between Manel Kape and Rogerio Bontorin will no longer take place on Saturday’s card in Singapore.

MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz reports Bontorin had kidney issues from cutting weight and is currently hospitalized. Bontorin’s hospitalization was first reported by Eurosport.

“He was in the process of cutting weight and felt a lot of pain in the lumbar area when he was 2kg [4.5 pounds] over, then he left the bathtub and it only got worse. We called Marcus, from the UFC staff, to check on him and we needed an ambulance to go to the hospital. We ran some tests and he had renal insufficiency, so he’ll stay in the hospital until tomorrow,” Gile Ribeiro, Bonteron’s coach, told Cruz.

Kape is coming off of back-to-back knockout wins over Zhalgas Zhumagulov and Ode Osbourne. After emerging as a star in Japan’s RIZIN promotion, Kape lost his first two UFC fights by decision before defeating Osbourne at UFC 265.

Bontorin was originally scheduled to welcome Kape to the octagon at UFC 252 back in August 2020. However, Bontorin was forced to withdraw from that bout due to an ankle injury. Bontorin has lost three of his past four fights. In his most recent outing at UFC Vegas 46 in January, Bontorin dropped a split decision to Brandon Royval.

Update: Kape released a statement.