(BREAKING — Ross Pearson and Ovince St. Preux have just withdrawn from their fights due to terror-induced injuries. / Props: Gray’s Instagram)
Due to an undisclosed injury suffered in training, UFC lightweight Abel Trujillo has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled main card bout against Ross Pearson at UFC Fight Night 47: Bader vs. St. Preux (August 16th; Bangor, ME). Stepping up to fight Pearson in Trujillo’s place is Gray Maynard, who was slated to face Fabricio Camoes on the same card. (Maynard and Camoes were originally booked to fight at UFC 176, before that event was canceled.)
Maynard badly needs a win here — or at least a halfway-decent performance. “The Bully” suffered back-to-back first-round TKO losses against TJ Grant and Nate Diaz last year, and has only won a single fight since 2011, an infamously dull split-decision victory over Clay Guida in June 2012.
Pearson is coming off his screwjob decision loss to Diego Sanchez in June of this year, which followed a no-contest against Melvin Guillard last October, when Guillard opened up a huge gash on Pearson’s forehead with an illegal knee. I’m sure Pearson would like nothing more than to defeat Maynard in a controversy-free ass-kicking. Should be a good one.
The bout order for UFC Fight Night 47 hasn’t been made official yet, but the list of matches is as follows…
Ryan Bader vs. Ovince Saint Preux
Tim Boetsch vs. Brad Tavares
Gray Maynard vs. Ross Pearson
Shawn Jordan vs. Jack May
Robbie Peralta vs. Thiago Tavares
Jussier Formiga vs. Zach Makovsky
Sara McMann vs. Lauren Murphy
Seth Baczynski vs. Alan Jouban
Sam Alvey vs. Tom Watson