UFC welterweight Matt Riddle
Looky, looky another injury has forced yet another fighter out of a scheduled bout inside the Octagon.
An undisclosed injury to Siyar Bahadurzada (21-4-1) has forced the Afghan born fighter out of an upcoming welterweight bout with Canadian fighter Chris ‘The Menace’ Clements (11-4) at UFC 149.
Stepping in will be TUF 7 alum ‘Deep Waters’ Matt Riddle (6-3).
By my rough count, this is makes it eight matches on the Canadian card that have been forced to change due to injury. The UFC fighter insurance policy is certainly getting some use.
The change was announced by UFC officials early this morning at UFC.com.
Welterweight striker Siyar Bahadurzada is the latest casualty of the UFC 149 injury bug, as he’s been forced from his July 21st bout with Chris Clements. Stepping in this month to face “The Menace” in Calgary will be Matthew Riddle.
UFC 149 is expected to take place on July 21, 2012 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Riddle has been out of action since last February when he won a split decision over Henry Martinez at UFC 143 in Las Vegas. The win ended a two fight losing skid for ‘Deep Waters’ who lost back-to-back decisions to Lance Benoist at UFN 25, and to Sean Pierson at UFC 124.
Clements, who was originally a replacement for injured fighter Thiago Alves who had been scheduled to face Yoshihiro Akiyama but was replaced by Bahadurzada, enters the fight on a five fight win streak. ‘The Menace’ debuted in the Octagon this past April at UFC 145, earning a split decision over Keith Wisniewski at the Atlanta, Georgia event.
Just as an FYI, all of the injuries which have caused changes to the first ever UFC event in Alberta are as follows:
– Injury to Jose Aldo forced UFC featherweight title bout to be pulled. Aldo was scheduled to meet Erik Koch.
– Injury to Michael Bisping forced him off the card.
– An injury to Brian Stann forced the UFC to book his original opponent, UFC newcomer Hector Lombard, with Bisping’s opponent Tim Boetsch.
– As mentioned Akiyama was replaced by Bahadurzada, who was then replaced by Riddle.
– Alves was relaced by Clements.
– Thiago Silva was to face Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua but was forced out with an injury, leaving Rua now booked in versus Brandon Vera at UFC on FOX 4.
– An injury to George Roop now has Daniel Pineda stepping in versus Antonio Carvalho.
Got all that? Phew.