Former Strikeforce fighter Nah-Shon Burrell has agreed to fill in for former Ultimate Fighter winner Amir Sadollah, and will face Stephen Thompson in a welterweight bout at UFC 160, which takes place on May 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
UFC announced the change on Wednesday.
Burrell (9-2), debuted at UFC 157, winning a unanimous decision over Yuri Villefort in a fight where Burrell had the advantage in the stand-up game, which was enough to negate the submission edge that Villefort had. It was his seventh win in his last eight fights. But Burrell will come into the fight with Thompson with something to prove, since he missed weight by nearly five pounds in his debut.
It was the second time Burrell had missed weight in his last five outings.
Burrell is an aggressive stand-up fighter, but in Thompson, he faces one of the most decorated kickboxers on the UFC roster.
Thompson (6-1), was a youth kickboxing star, who wound up as the top fighter in the World Combat League, a television kickboxing promotion seven years ago. He went 43-0 as an amateur kickboxer, and 20-0 as a professional, before moving to MMA and being signed by UFC after five pro MMA fights.
But he hasn’t fought in a year since being roughed up by Matt Brown at UFC 145 in Atlanta, Ga., losing via decision.