For the hundreds in attendance and the millions and millions watching from the comfort of their home, it was a disappointing day at the UFC Apex.

Another episode of Dana White's Contender Series just went down, but it was missing the real reason people were tuning in to this episode -- Kody Steele. 

Obviously there was a lot of hype around Kody's participation in the event, with many fans excited to see him earn a contract to fight for the UFC. But, a rather interesting turn of events prevented this from happening. According to William Tackett via Instagram, Kody's opponent, Quemuel Ottoni, pulled out an hour before the fight due to "not feeling it." As a bit of a vagabundo myself, I can fully relate to not feeling it. But that is also why I am not a prizefighter.

Here is what William Tackett disclosed on the situation:

"[Kody Steele]‘s opponent just pulled out less than 1hr before the UFC contender series due to “not feeling it”

We shockingly had to remove Kody's wraps just as he started to warm up.

5mins later we were notified that his opponent was back in, and the fight is back on!

Mission stays the same, it’s go time"

 Ottoni's biggest claim to fame is that he delivered the first MMA loss to Alex 'Poatan' Pereira via RNC back in 2015. Since then he has garnered a rather impressive professional MMA record at 12-3 with eight knockouts and three submissions. But there is more to the story than just that. A closer look at Ottoni's record shows that his career has been plagued with fight cancellations, thirteen to be exact. So he is no stranger to cancelled fights.

At this point it seemed like things were iffy, but the fight was back on. Until William Tackett returned to give some more info:

Fight is off! [Kody Steele]‘s opponent refused to get in the cage with him. We are all disappointed cause of all the hard work Kody put into this, but we know there’s going to be something bigger down the line waiting for him.

Hard to digest this one, but I’m happy Kody's healthy and ready to get out there ASAP.

Tag @danawhite below, Kody Steele deserves that contract!

And with that the fight was officially off. Make it fourteen cancelled bouts for Ottoni. In William's video you can see how disappointed Kody is. I could only imagine how deflating of a feeling it has to be to do a full camp, make weight, and show up the day of the fight, just to be told that your opponent has pulled out.

It was announced that Kody would still receive his show and win money, and would be added to another episode of the Contender Series. It is very disappointing to be delayed getting to see Kody punch his ticket to the UFC, but we will definitely be watching when he does get that call.

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