With both original headliners out, Thiago Santos will now face Eryk Anders on September 22nd in Brazil.
UFC Fight Night 137 has seen a lot of changes over the months, but none quite as unfortunate as this latest switch up just a week before the event: headliner Jimi Manuwa is out of his fight with Thiago Santos for as of yet undisclosed reasons. According to MMA Junkie, Eryk Anders has been tapped as a late replacement.
What a knockout, @erykanders‘ a bad dude. pic.twitter.com/DmcohvjUgF
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) August 26, 2018
Set to go down September 22nd from the Ginasio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the card was originally headlined by Jimi Manuwa vs. Glover Teixeira. But because the MMA Gods enjoy our pain, Teixeira pulled out in August with an injury, replaced by Santos. And now the other half of the original matchup is out as well.
Other scratches for the card include Neil Magny, Elias Theodorou, Antonio Carlos Junior, Mark Godbeer, Tonya Evinger, and Ketlen Vieira.
Anders is currently 11-1 and coming off a third round headkick knockout of Tim Williams in August. This will actually be the second time he’s headlined in Brazil. He faced Lyoto Machida earlier this year, losing a controversial split decision that many felt should have gone his way. The possibility of more hometown cooking wasn’t enough to stop the former Alabama Crimson Tide player from jumping at the opportunity to step in, though.
Even with all the changes, UFC Sao Paulo is still looking pretty good. Here’s the lineup as it stands now, before weigh-in debacles inevitably kill another match or two.
FOX Sports 1 Main Card – 10:30 PM EST
- Thiago Santos vs. Eryk Anders
- Alex Oliveira vs. Carlo Pedersoli
- Sam Alvey vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
- Renan Barao vs. Andre Ewell
- Randa Markos vs. Marina Rodriguez
FOX Sports 2 Prelims – 8:00 PM EST
- Christos Giagos vs. Charles Oliveira
- Evan Dunham vs. Francisco Trinaldo
- Luis Henrique vs. Ryan Spann
- Augusto Sakai vs. Chase Sherman
UFC Fight Pass Prelims – 6:45 p.m. ET
- Sergio Moraes vs. Ben Saunders
- Marya Bueno Silva vs. Gillian Robertson
- Thales Leites vs. Hector Lombard
- Belal Muhammad vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
- Alex Chambers vs. Livia Renata Souza