An injury to the ‘Bad Boy’ Leonard Garcia has forced the former WEC fighter out of his fight with ‘The Mongolian Wolf’ Tiequan Zhang (15-2). Stepping in on two weeks notice will be Japanese fighter Issei Tamura (6-2) who makes his Octagon debut at the UFC 144 event.
The UFC announced the change via Twitter (@ufc) on late Saturday night.
– Japan card update – with Leonard Garcia injured, @KB_official’s Issei Tamura will fight Tiequan Zhang at UFC 144
The two featherweights will likely square off on the FX broadcast preliminary card as part of this month’s upcoming UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson event which is set for February 26, 2012. The event takes place in Japan on the 26th at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan but will broadcast in North America on Saturday, February 25th.
Zhang is 1-1 in the Octagon and 2-2 overall with Zuffa having lost a decision to Darren Elkins at UFC 136 in ‘The Mongolian Wolf’s’ last fight. Zhang debuted with the UFC one year ago, dropping to featherweight to submit Jason Reinhardt at UFC 127 in just 48-seconds of round one. Before that, the Chinese fighter made two appearances with the WEC, losing to Danny Downes and defeating Pablo Garza in those matches.
Tamura is a Shooto product having fought exclusively for the Japan promotion. He is just 1-2 in his last three, losing via majority decision last November to Toshiharu Suzuki in their back-to-back rematch bout. The other match with Suzuki took place in August and ended with a knockout victory for Tamura at 1:23 of the first. Tamura’s other five wins have all come via decision.