UFC middleweight Alessio “Legionarius” Sakara (15-7, 1NC) has had a second opponent bow out for the upcoming UFC on Versus 3 (aka UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann) event.
Sakara was to have faced Rafael “Sapo” Natal (12-3-1) at the event, but Natal suffered withdrawn a knee injury during training according and has been forced to withdraw from the event according to Ariel Helwani at Versus.com. Natal had stepped in as a replacement for Maiquel Falcão who also pulled out of his scheduled match with Sakara due to injury in mid-January.
No word on whether the UFC would find a new opponent with just under three weeks to go before the event or if they would just pull Sakara from the card.
UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann is scheduled to take place on March 3rd at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky is headlined by a welterweight bout between Diego Sanchez and Martin Kampmann.
Sakara is currently on a three fight win streak and has gone 4-1 in his last five fights. His last octagon appearance was at the first Versus event, UFC Live: Vera vs. Jones back in March of last year against James Irvin. The Italian would stop Irvin in the first round by TKO due to a broken orbital bone. Before that he earned a split decision over former middleweight contender Thales Leites at UFC 101 and KO’d Joe Vedepo at UFC Fight Night 15.