Siyar Bahadurzada (21-4-1) has officially stepped in to replace injured Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-5) at UFC 149 to face Thiago Alves (19-9) on July 21st in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
There is no word as yet of the nature of Akiyama’s injury.
Thiago Alves was controlling a fight against Martin Kampmann and was surely on his way to a decision victory before shooting in for a late takedown and being caught in a guillotine choke at UFC on FX 2 in March. Alves was forced to tap at 4:12 of the third and final round.
Alves is just 2-4 since earning a title shot at welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 100 but hasn’t lost two in a row since the first two fights of his professional career.
Bahadurzada, meanwhile, comes into this fight on the back of a seriously impressive knockout win over Paulo Thiago in just 42 seconds. The fight took place at UFC on FUEL TV 2 and marked Bahadurzada’s UFC debut and earned him “Knockout of the Night.” Siyar is now on a seven-fight win streak and brings in a 21-4-1 overall record.
This one has the potential to be a “Fight of the Night” standup war, and I, for one, can’t wait to see it happen.
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