Late Thursday night, the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced a change to one of it’s preliminary bouts for UFC 130.
UFC.com officials reported that lightweight fighter Bart “Bartimus” Palaszewski was forced to withdraw from the event due to an injury. Stepping in with just over a weeks time will be Rafaello “Tractor” Oliveira (14-3), who takes on Gleison Tibau (22-7) at the Las Vegas event.
“Bart Palaszewski is out of his UFC 130 bout with Gleison Tibau due to injury, said Dana White today. Coming off a four-fight win streak, Rafaello “Tractor” Oliveira has verbally agreed to make his UFC return and face Tibau in a lightweight battle of Brazilian-born BJJ black belts.”
“Palaszewski was originally slated to fight TUF standout Cody McKenzie, but an injury sidelined the guilliotine specialist two weeks ago.”
UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill is set to take place on May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fans will get to watch the Tibau vs. Oliveira bout live on the UFC’s Facebook page.
This will be Oliveira’s second run with the UFC after a 1-2 run which ended in March of last year at UFC Fight Night 21 after a unanimous decision loss to Andre Winner. Since that time the Brazilian has racked up four straight victories with various promotions in the U.S. and Brazil. His last win came on March 31 in Brazil with a second round TKO victory.
Tibau is 3-1 in his last four fights, but just 1-1 in his last two. He earned a split decision win over Kurt Pellegrino in March at UFC 128, while dropping a unanimous decision to Jim Miller last September at UFC Fight Night 22. Overall Tibau sports an 8-5 record with the top promotion since his debut back in November of 2006.