The final piece of the UFC 158 puzzle is set.
Jake Ellenberger will now meet former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nate Marquardt (32-11-2) on the March 16 card, The Canadian Press first reported Tuesday.
The new fight comes after Rory MacDonald was forced to pull out of his UFC 158 fight against Carlos Condit due to a neck and back injury. As a result, Johny Hendricks, who was originally scheduled to fight Ellenberger, was matched up against Condit, leaving an opening for the former UFC middleweight contender Marquardt to slide in.
UFC 158, headlined by Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz for the UFC welterweight title, takes place next month at Bell Centre in Montreal.
This will mark Marquardt’s first fight in the UFC since March 2011 when he beat Dan Miller via unanimous decision. “The Great” was released from the organization in June 2011 after failing a pre-fight drug test prior to UFC on Versus 4 in Pittsburgh. He resurfaced a year later in Strikeforce and won that organization’s welterweight crown in July. He lost the belt in January to Tarec Saffiedine at the final Strikeforce show.
Ellenberger (28-6) most recently defeated Jay Hieron at UFC on FX 5 in October.