Ultimate Fighting Championship officials announced the change to this weekends UFC 131: Dos Santos vs. Carwin event on Tuesday morning, naming Mike ‘The Master Of Disaster’ Massenzio (12-4) as a late replacement for Croatian fighter Igor Pokrajac. Massenzio, who normally fights at middleweight, will make his UFC light heavyweight debut against ‘The Polish Experiment’ Krzysztof Soszynski (25-11-1).
Light-heavyweight Krzysztof Soszynski has had a change of opponent — again — for his UFC 131 bout in Vancouver this Saturday. UFC veteran Mike Massenzio has verbally agreed to take the bout against Soszynski just six days out from the June 11 event, Dana White announced today.
Originally slated to fight Anthony Perosh, who suffered an injury, Soszynski was then expected to fight Igor Pokrajac, who also suffered an injury that forced him to cancel.
UFC 131: Dos Santos vs. Carwin is set to happen this Saturday, June 11, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Even with the change in opponents, the bout should still be scheduled for the Facebook Preliminary card broadcast.
Massenzio was released from the UFC last summer after losing two fights in a row, going 1-2 overall with the top promotion. His last Octagon appearance was against Brian Stann at UFC on Versus 2 in August of last year, he would lose by third round submission to Stann in a bout that earned both men the “Fight of the Night” bonus. ‘The Master Of Disaster’ would earn a win since then, earning a first round TKO victory at a local event in New Hampshire this past April.
As noted, Soszynski has had two previous opponents drop out due to injury, Anthony Perosh and now Igor Pokrajac. ‘The Polish Experiment’ has less than a week to prepare for his new opponent and carries a record of 2-1 into the Octagon in his last three fights. Soszynski earned a unanimous decisoin over Goran Reljic last November at UFC 122, while losing a back-to-back fight with Stephan Bonnar by second round TKO at UFC 116. That second fight with Bonnar earned them both the “Fight of the Night” bonus. Soszynski won their first meeting at UFC 110 by TKO after an accidental head-butt opened a cut on Bonnar’s head.