Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua
Late Monday evening officials with the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced the withdrawal of co-main event fighter Maurício ‘Shogun’ Rua from the upcoming UFC 161 event in Canada.
The announcement was made at UFC.com.
Winnipeg’s upcoming UFC event has undergone its third injury-related change in three weeks, this one bumping the planned co-main event off the card entirely.
Light heavyweight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has been injured in training and forced out of his planned bout with former champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Shogun will instead be booked on a card later this summer and UFC 161 will proceed with 11 bouts.
Moving into the co-main event slot will be heavyweights Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson (19-7) vs. Stipe Miocic (9-1). The two were added to the card recently after the main event bout between interim bantamweight champ Renana Barao and Eddie Wineland was scrapped after Barao fell to the injury bugy.
Stepping up to the main pay-per-view card from the prelims will be a light heavyweight match featuring Canadian Ryan Jimmo (17-2) and Igor Pokrajac (25-9).
Former middleweight and light heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen had been lobbying to replace the injured Nogueira at the Winnipeg event but according to news website Globo Sonnen had issues getting a visa on short notice. The two are expected to meet on August 17, 2013 at UFC on FOX Sports 1: 1 in Boston.
UFC 161: Evans vs. Henderson is expected to take place on June 15, 2013 at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The event is headlined by a light heavyweight bout between Rashad Evans vs. Dan Henderson.