With fewer than 30 days remaining before UFC 334 — the promotion's 13th card held in New York City — a bout between bantamweight contender Adrian Yanez and Juan Diaz has been removed from the preliminary lineup following Yanez's withdrawal, placing the event under renewed scheduling pressure.
Yanez's exit from the UFC 334 card, scheduled for 14 November at Madison Square Garden, was reported by Kevin K on X. No explanation for the change has been made available. Neither the fighter's team nor the UFC has put forward any account of what led to the withdrawal, whether injury, illness, or another factor.
Yanez had not previously withdrawn from a UFC bout at any point in his career. Two prior bouts on his record were called off before they could take place — one against Christian Quinonez and another against Aaron Phillips — with those withdrawals coming from the opposing fighters rather than from Yanez.
A health problem whose nature was never publicly disclosed — one that arose following a split-decision defeat to Daniel Marcos in 2024 — kept him away from bantamweight competition for a period. After sitting out all of 2025, Yanez returned in March 2026, meeting Ricky Simon in a bout that ended in a majority draw, a verdict that drew considerable dispute. He had also recorded a first-round knockout of former bantamweight titleholder Cody Garbrandt at UFC 329. A bout with Juan Diaz would have marked his third appearance of 2026.
No details about why Yanez stepped away have been made public, leaving his return date undetermined as well.
With Yanez pulling out of the Madison Square Garden card, the event has absorbed its third consecutive cancellation. A matchup between Nazim Sadykhov and Jefferson Nascimento was previously removed after neither fighter remained available to compete. Nascimento's exit was attributed to an undisclosed injury, while Sadykhov communicated to UFC matchmakers that he was not prepared to take on a last-minute substitute. The matchup between Bysangur Susurkaev and Donte Johnson was also pulled from the card after Susurkaev withdrew, with no explanation given for his exit.
The removal of the Yanez vs. Diaz matchup from its featured prelims slot opens a position on the card for another bout. A pairing of Thompson against Radtke has been identified as a possibility, given that UFC 334 is scheduled to mark Thompson's retirement from competition. Three of Thompson's past four bouts ended in defeat, with a win over Kevin Holland in 2022 standing as his most recent victory.
Two additional preliminary-card bouts are also scheduled: Miller, who is 43, takes on Terrence McKinney, while Chris Duncan and Drew Dober are paired against each other in that same slot.
