The ever-growing list of the UFC walking wounded increased by one on Saturday when it was announced that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira had been forced from the UFC 149 main card.
Nogueira last fought at UFC 140, losing to Frank Mir via a particularly nasty kimura that left Nogueira’s arm broken and requiring surgery. According to Sherdog.com, Nogueira has yet to fully recover from that surgery and was forced to withdraw from the July 21 card.
Nogueira had been scheduled to face Cheick Kongo on the card at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Kongo (17-7-2) has already had a replacement opponent named, the 13-3 Shawn Jordan.
Kongo is coming off a loss in his last fight, a first round TKO at the hands of Mark Hunt. The loss to Hunt broke a four fight unbeaten streak for Kongo. Jordan made his debut with the UFC in March of this year, defeating Oli Thompson via second round TKO. The Kongo versus Jordan bout will take place on the main pay-per-view card.
UFC 149 has been one of the more cursed fight cards in recent memory as none of the four fights that currently make up the main card where originally booked for the event.
The card was originally set to feature a featherweight title bout between Jose Aldo and Erik Koch, but an injury to Aldo caused that fight to be postponed.
The co-main event between Hector Lombard and Tim Boetsch was originally a bout between Boetsch and Michael Bisping, but Bisping was forced from the card due to injury.
The fourth main card bout was originally supposed to be a fight between Yoshihiro Akiyama and Thiago Alves, but Akiyama was injured and replaced by Siyar Bahadurzada. Alves was then forced from the card and replaced by Chris Clements.
Judging by all the changes to the main card and the fact that we are still more than a month away from this event taking place, I wouldn’t place any wagers that the card as currently scheduled is the one that fans will be watching on July 21.
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