West Australian Cody Haddon has been forced to withdraw from the biggest fight of his career to date because of an injury.
Haddon (8-1) was set to fight undefeated bantamweight Malcolm Wellmaker (10-0) as part of the preliminary fights for UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden on Sunday morning.
The UFC confirmed the 27-year-old was forced withdrawn from the bout on Friday morning, having been replaced by Ethyn Ewing with the fight now to take place at bantamweight.
Wellmaker took to social media to talk about the drama and said Haddon had broken his foot.
It is a blow for Haddon, who was set to step into the octagon for the first time since he beat Dan Argueta on debut in October of last year, just five weeks after earning a UFC contract on the Dana White Contender Series.
Haddon was scheduled to fight Aleksandre Topuria in Sydney earlier this year but was forced to withdraw because of a foot injury he picked up while sparring.
He then sustained a partially torn lateral collateral ligament while training which further delayed his return.
Haddon took the fight against Wellmaker on short notice after an injury to the American’s previous opponent forced the change.
Before his latest setback, Haddon opened up to The West Australian about his injury frustrations which had him sidelined for most of 2025.
“It was debilitating. I had a bit of momentum behind me,” Haddon said.
“It was devastating. You start thinking am I going to lose my job or something? I need to get back in there. To have back-to-back injuries was just crushing.
“Come the tail end of this year, in the past three or four months I have been healthy and able to push hard and get my body back in great condition for this fight. I am so grateful that the universe has given this to me.
“I was super hesitant going back into training, I was scared nearly. The anxiety to train and what’s going to happen next, it was very hard mentally to overcome that.”
