An earlier report by Fighters Only Magazine, has UFC 119 co-headliner Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1) dropping out of the September 25 bout. Now the site is reporting that former PRIDE champ Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovi? (27-7-2) has been tagged as his replacement to face former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir (13-5).
Nogueira was forced to withdraw from the UFC 119 event due to an injury but no word was given as to the exact nature, but that it will requires surgery.
The bout was to have been a rematch between the heavyweights after their first meeting at UFC 92 in December of 2008. Mir earned a TKO victory over “Big Nog”, the first KO loss of Nogueira’s career at the time, to win the interim heavyweight title. Afterward it was learned that Nogueira had suffered a nasty staph infection just 20 days before the fight and had spent 5 days in hospital.
“Cro Cop” makes his return to the octagon after defeating Pat Barry in May at UFC 115 in Vancouver, Canada. That win improved the Croatians recent record in the UFC to 3-1 (4-3 overall in the promotion) and two straight since his loss to Junior dos Santos via submission (eye injury) at UFC 103 in Texas.
Mir is coming off a loss in his second run at a UFC interim title having been KO’d by Shane Carwin at UFC 111. He is 1-2 in his past three but 4-2 in his past six bouts, having defeated Cheick Kongo at UFC 107 and losing to UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar last summer at UFC 100.
UFC 119 will go down at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on Sept. 25 with the co-main event featuring Nogueira’s brother “Little Nog” Antônio Rogério Nogueira who takes on Ryan Bader. Two of the preliminary bouts of the event will be broadcast live on Spike TV which include matches between C.B. Dollaway vs. Joe Doerksen, and Matt Mitrione vs. Joey Beltran.