Lauren Murphy out of UFC 276 vs. Miesha Tate; promotion seeking replacement

Miesha Tate’s flyweight debut is on the verge of being derailed completely from UFC 276.

Tate (19-8 MMA, 6-5 UFC), a former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, needs a new opponent for Saturday’s card after Lauren Murphy (5-3 MMA, 1-3 UFC) was forced to withdraw for undisclosed reasons.

The promotion announced during Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 38 broadcast that the fight had been canceled, but did not provide additional details.

MMA Junkie subsequently verified with a person close to the situation that Murphy is out, and the promotion is “searching hard” for a replacement to step in and fight Tate on short notice. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

It the replacement search proves unsuccessful, it’s possible the matchup with Murphy could be rescheduled to a later date, perhaps as soon as one of the UFC’s other events in July.

Sunday, Murphy posted on Twitter that the hope was to do just that with a rescheduled fight July 16 at the UFC’s event on Long Island.

UFC 276 takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ABC, as well as early prelims on ESPN+.

The latest UFC 276 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET)

• Israel Adesanya vs. Jared Cannonier – for middleweight title

• Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway – for featherweight title

• Miesha Tate vs. opponent TBA

• Alex Pereira vs. Sean Strickland

• Pedro Munhoz vs. Sean O’Malley

PRELIMINARY CARD (ABC/ESPN/ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)

• Brad Riddell vs. Jalin Turner

• Bryan Barberena vs. Robbie Lawler

• Ian Garry vs. Gabe Green

• Donald Cerrone vs. Jim Miller

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)

• Uriah Hall vs. Andre Muniz

• Maycee Barber vs. Jessica Eye

• Dricus Du Plessis vs. Brad Tavares

• Jessica-Rose Clark vs. Julija Stoliarenko