Siyar Bahadurzada made a strong first impression in the UFC. The Kabul, Afghanistan native knocked out Paulo Thiago in just 42 seconds in his company debut in Stockholm.
But he’ll have to wait awhile before following up on his big debut. The UFC announced via Twitter on Saturday night that the well-traveled welterweight had to drop out of his UFC 149 bout on July 21 against Chris Clements due to an undisclosed injury. Matt Riddle will take Bahadurzada’s place.
“UFC 149: oh sweet mercy…. Siyar out injured, new bout is Chris Clements vs Matt Riddle,” read the tweet.
The former Shooto champion’s injury is the latest in a series of events that have wreaked havoc on the company’s first Calgary event. The main event of UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo vs. Eric Koch was scrapped when Aldo suffered a left leg injury. Bahadurzada was originally supposed to face Thiago Alves, who dropped out of the fight due to an injury and was replaced by Clements, a Team Tompkins fighter from Ontario who won his UFC debut against Keith Wisniewski at UFC 145.
Riddle, the former TUF 7 contestant, was slated to face Luis Ramos on June 22, but had to pull out due to a training injury. Riddle’s last bout was a UFC 143 win over Henry Martinez.