An injury to Rafael Natal forced the fighter off the upcoming UFC on Versus 3 (aka UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampann) leaving Italian Alessio Sakara without an opponent, the news broke earlier today.
Now Heavy.com is reporting that 4-0 Ring of Combat middleweight champ Chris Weidman (4-0) has been signed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship and will step in for the injured Natal to face Sakara at the March 3rd event.
This will be Sakara’s third opponent for the event as he was first scheduled to meet Maiquel Falcão originally but an injury forced him out in mid-January. Natal was tapped as a replacement and is himself now injured. Weidman takes the fight with less than three weeks of prep time before the Versus event.
Weidman fought twice in 2010 and twice in 2009, earning 2 TKO victories, one submission and one unanimous decision. His last fight was in December of last year at a Ring of Combat 33 event where he earned a unanimous decision over opponent Valdir Arraujo.
This will be Sakara’s first bout in just under a year. The Italian had been scheduled to fight at three different events since he beat James Irvin by TKO at UFC on Versus 1. Sakara was to have fought Nate Marquardt at UFC 116 but pulled out do to the death of his father. He was to meet Jorge Rivera next at UFC 118 but Rivera was forced off the card due to injury and was replaced by Gerald Harris. Sakara then injured himself and was pulled from that event. A rematch between Sakara and Rivera was booked for UFC 122 but “Legionarius” became ill before the weigh-ins backstage and the fight was pulled. The Italian is currently riding a three fight win streak.
UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann is set for March 3rd at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky with the main card airing on the Versus network.