This weekends upcoming UFC 138: Leben vs. Muñoz has seen a last minute lineup change to the UK card after a main card bout between Paul ‘Relentless’ Taylor (11-6-1, 1NC) and Anthony ‘The Assassin’ Njokuani (14-5, 1NC) was pulled after Taylor was injured in a minor car accident.
The UFC announced the change on Tuesday, noting that it was bumping a light heavyweight match between Cyrille ‘Snake’ Diabate (17-7-1) vs. Anthony ‘The Hippo’ Perosh (11-6) to the main card.
Following a minor car accident Monday night in which he was rear-ended at a red light and suffered whiplash, lightweight Paul Taylor has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 138 bout with Anthony Njokuani. Due to the late nature of this card change, the bout will not be replaced, and the light heavyweight bout between Anthony Perosh and Cyrille Diabate will move to the main card.
UFC 138 is scheduled to take place this Saturday, Nov. 5, at the LG Arena in Birmingham, England. The event features the first five-round non-title bout in the UFC’s history as middleweights Chris Leben and Mark Munoz square off in the main event.
Diabate bounced back from his first Octagon loss in his last bout, defeating Steve Cantwell by unanimous decision at UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann last March. This put’s the ‘Snake’s’ record at 2-1 in the UFC.
Perosh is in his second run with the UFC, having gone 0-2 in 2006, and is 1-1 in his latest stint. The Australian fighter hasn’t been in action since last February when he stopped Tom Blackledge by rear-naked choke submission at UFC 127.