Siyar Bahadurzada is the latest fighter to pull out of a July 27 bout at Seattle’s Key Arena. Due to an undisclosed injury, the Afghani fighter had to pull out of his welterweight main-card bout against Robbie Lawler. Slugger Bobby Voelker will take his place.
UFC Tonight tweeted the news on Thursday.
This is the second potential opponent July 27 to fall out for Lawler, as he was originally scheduled to face former Strikeforce champion Tarec Saffiedine.
Other fight-card changes include a new opponent for Liz Carmouche, Jessica Andrade, who took the fight when Miesha Tate was removed from their main-card bout in order to appear on The Ultimate Fighter opposite Ronda Rousey; and just yesterday, the heavyweight fight between Brendan Schaub and Matt Mitrione was yanked due to a Mitrione injury.
With this news, Bahadurzada now has more fight pullouts in the UFC than actual fights. He’s 1-1 in the Octagon, with a win over Paulo Thiago and a loss to Dong Hyun Kim. In addition to the Lawler bout, he’s also pulled out of fights at UFC 142 and 149.
The new fight promises potential fireworks. Voelker, a Strikeforce vet is 24-9 and has 19 wins via finish, including 15 KO/TKOs. His UFC debut was a decision loss to Patrick Cote at UFC 158. Lawler (20-9, 1 no-contest) is one of the most heavy-handed fighters in the welterweight division and is coming off a brutal knockout of Josh Koscheck in his return at UFC 157.