Fabio Maldonado
With an elbow injury forcing former UFC light heavyweight champ Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, the UFC has booked a new opponent for Glover Teixeira (18-2) who now meets Fábio Maldonado (18-5) next month at UFC 153.
Teixeira vs. Maldonado will appear on the main card of the pay-per-view event with a heavyweight bout between Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Dave Herman taking the co-main event slot.
News of the matchup was made official by the promotion at UFC.com Wednesday evening.
The UFC 153 card also has a new co-main event, as Brazilian bomber Fabio Maldonado will replace Quinton “Rampage” Jackson against countryman Glover Teixeira. The recent retirement of Jorgen Kruth had bumped Maldonado off September 29th’s card in Nottingham,
UFC 153: Silva vs. Bonnar is scheduled to take place on October 13, 2012 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event has UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva taking on Stephan Bonnar in a light heavyweight bout for the main event.
Teixeira is a highly regarded light heavyweight who finally made his Octagon debut earlier this year at UFC 146. The Brazilian dominated Kyle Kingsbury to go on to win his sixteenth straight match by locking in an arm-triangle choke in the first round at UFC 146. Teixeira has finished sixteen of his eighteen opponents, thirteen via (T)KO and five by submission.
Maldonado was to face Jorgen Kruth at UFC on FUEL TV 5 in England, but his Swedish opponent recently announced his retirement from combat sports. Kruth was replaced by Cirylle Diabate but will now face fellow Brazilian Teixeira in Rio. Maldonado has lost his last two matches and is 1-2 in the UFC. He dropped decisions to Igor Pokrajac at UFC on FUEL TV 3 and to Kyle Kingsbury at the TUF 13 Finale, in a “Fight of the Night” match. He won his debut at UFC 120 by finishing James McSweeney via third round TKO, winning his eleventh straight bout.