Thiago Alves
Another injury has taken down one more of UFC 149′s main card fighters, as Thiago ‘Pitbull’ Alves has been to withdraw from his upcoming bout versus Siyar ‘The Great’ Bahadurzada (21-4-1).
Stepping in for Alves will be Canadian welterweight Chris ‘The Menace’ Clements (11-4) at the upcoming Calgary event.
Stepping in to the welterweight bout in Alves’ place is Chris Clements, a striker from London, Ontario, Canada, who won his UFC debut at UFC 145 in April.
Bahadurzada coincidentally, replaced Akihiro Akiyama who withdrew from his fight with Alves after he suffered an injury. Other notable news from the announcement was the official withdrawal of Thiago Silva from his bout versus Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua due to injury, as well as the addition of a welterweight bout between James Head and Claude ‘The Prince’ Patrick.
UFC 149 is expected to take place on July 21, 2012 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. With Alves off the card a Bahadurzada vs. Clements bout will certainly be bumped down to the preliminary card and fans should expect to see the match on Facebook.
Like his new opponent, Bahadurzada also debuted in the Octagon in his last bout, earning a stunning 42-second first round knockout of Paulo Thiago at the UFC: Sweden event. It was ‘The Killer’s’ seventh straight victory, six of which ended in (T)KO’s.
Clements won a split decision in his UFC debut last April, defeating Keith Wisniewski at UFC 145 in Atlanta, Georgia. It was Clements fifth straight win, with the first four matches coming via (T)KO. In fact, before debuting in the Octagon all of Clements ten victories have come by (T)KO stoppage.