An anticipated featherweight matchup between Aljamain Sterling and Movsar Evloev will no longer take place at UFC 307.

Sterling announced Wednesday he sustained an injury in sparring and although he took some time off to get stem cell treatment and begin rehab, he will not be ready to compete in Salt Lake City on Oct. 5.

The former men’s bantamweight champion looked great in his win over Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 in April in his first bout since moving up to the 145-pound division, and said that he should be healed up and ready to compete by December. He challenged Evloev to push the fight back and wait so they can face each other.

“I believe God has a plan and is protecting me to give my best for (Evloev),” Sterling wrote on social media. “I need all my tools for an opponent like Movsar and hopefully he’s willing to fight me when I’m healed up.”

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Evloev improved to 18-0 in mixed martial arts with a unanimous decision win over Arnold Allen at UFC 297 in January.

It was not immediately clear whether the UFC planned to find a new opponent for Evloev or if the bout with Sterling will be delayed.

Evloev is 8-0 in the UFC and one of his wins was over the streaking Diego Lopes. Evloev won a competitive unanimous decision in what was Lopes’s UFC debut that he took on less than one week’s notice.

Lopes emerged relatively unscathed from his UFC 306 victory over Brian Ortega this past weekend at the Sphere and a hypothetical rematch with Evloev is something fight fans have pondered over the past year as Lopes’s star status has grown rapidly. Lopes has won five fights since losing to Evloev, who has only fought once since then, and Lopes’s two most recent appearances were fights he accepted on short notice.

UFC 307 is headlined by a light heavyweight championship bout between Alex Pereira and Khalil Roundtree Jr., plus a women’s bantamweight title fight between Raquel Pennington and Julianna Pena.

Kayla Harrison, Jose Aldo, Carla Esparza and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson are also among those set to compete at Delta Center.

Aljamain Sterling out of UFC 307 matchup vs. Movsar Evloev with injury

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