Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson
With the loss of the UFC 161 main event, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will add a heavyweight match between Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson (19-7) and Stipe Miocic (9-1) to the Canadian event bringing the pay-per-view card back up to five matches.
USA Today confirmed the news with UFC president Dana White late Tuesday evening.
The bout replaces an interim bantamweight title match between Renan Barao vs. Eddie Wineland after the champ Barao was forced out with an injury. Moving into the main event position will be a light heavyweight battle between Rashad Evans vs. Dan Henderson.
UFC 161: Evans vs. Henderson is expected to take place on June 15, 2013 at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Nelson enters the bout on a three fight win streak and is 4-1 in his last five matches. ‘Big Country’ was in action less than a month ago at UFC 159, stopping Cheick Kongo by first round knockout to earn the “Knockout of the Night” bonus, the fourth such bonus of Nelson’s career. All four of his recent victories for have been via (T)KO.
Miocic wants to turn things around following the first loss of his pro-career, having suffered a second round TKO loss to Stefan Struve last September at UFC on FUEL TV 5. Prior to that, Miocic had won three straight in the UFC, defeating fighters Shan del Rosario, Phil De Fries and Joey Beltran in those appearances.