On Monday a couple of upcoming UFC bouts were identified for two UFC events as well as a change in opponents for an upcoming February event. The news was first reported by MMAWeekly.com and MMAjunkie.com.
A bout was added an opponent changed for the upcoming Feb. 5th UFC 126 event, set for the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. A light-heavyweight match between Kyle Kingsbury (9-2) vs. Ricardo Romero (11-1) appears all but set for the preliminary card. While an injured Sam Stout was replaced by “The Cowboy” Donald Cerrone (13-3) in a lightweight bout versus Paul Kelly (11-3).
No news has surfaced as to the nature of Stout’s injury. The bout with Kelly will mark Cerrone’s first step into the octagon.
A welterweight bout between John Hathaway (14-1) vs. Kris McCray (5-2) has also been added to the upcoming March 26 UFC Fight Night 24 event, which is believed to take place at the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington.
Kingsbury is 2-2 in his last four bouts, but is 2-1 in the UFC. In his last outing he earned a unanimous decision win, as well as the “Fight of the Night” honors against Jared Hamman in last Septembers UFC Fight Night: Marquart vs. Palhares event. While opponent Romero is riding a six fight win streak and earned a submission win in his UFC debut at UFC 116 against Seth Petruzelli.
Cerrone is 6-3-1 during his time in the WEC and fought for the WEC lightweight title three times during that period. He is currently riding a two fight win streak and is coming off a submission win over Chris Horodecki at WEC 53 in December. British fighter Kelly, is 2-1 in his last three and sports a 5-3 record with the UFC. He earned a win over TJ O’Brien at UFC 123 in his last octagon appearance.
Hathaway had his undefeated streak stopped by Mike Pyle at UFC 120 last October, putting his UFC record at 4-1. The Ultimate Fighter 11 finalist McCray is 0-2 in the UFC having dropped fights to Carlos Rocha at UFC 122 and to Court McGee at the “TUF 11 Finale.” Despite fighting at middleweight on the show McCray dropped to 170 lbs after his loss to McGee.