Heavyweight Shawn Jordan – Photo via Bellator.com
Former UFC heavyweight champion Antônio Rodrigo ‘Big Nog’ Nogueira has not fully healed from surgery to repair his broken arm following a loss to Frank Mir at UFC 141.
Nogueira has now had to back out of his upcoming UFC 149 bout with Cheick Kongo (17-7-2), who will now meet replacement fighter Shawn Jordan (13-3) at the Canadian event.
News of ‘Big Nog’s’ status, as well as the replacement Jordan, was announced today by Sherdog.com who confirmed with sources close to Jordan’s camp in Jackson’s MMA.
Update: The UFC has made the change official after confirming Jordan as Nogueira’s replacement last night at UFC.com.
With heavyweight legend “Minotauro” Nogueira forced out of July 21st’s UFC 149 event in Calgary due to injury, up and comer Shawn Jordan will get the biggest opportunity of his young career when he battles longtime contender Cheick Kongo.
Jordan, winner of four of his last five, is coming off a second round TKO of Oli Thompson in his UFC debut in March. This summer, he’ll look to hand Kongo his second consecutive defeat.
UFC 149 is scheduled to take place on July 21, 2012 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Jordan debuted with the UFC last March in Australia at the UFC on FX 2 event. The heavyweight earned a second round TKO stoppage versus Oli Thompson at the event. Jordan has now won two in a row since losing his debut bout with Strikeforce in July 2011. The other win, a submission (keylock) victory over Lavar ‘Big’ Johnson at a Strikeforce challengers show in September of last year.
Kongo is coming off a loss to Mark Hunt last February when the ‘Super Samoan’ finished things with a first round TKO victory. The defeat was Kongo’s first in five matches having gone 3-1-1 in that span. Kongo’s last win was a unanimous decision versus Matt Mitrione in October of last year at UFC 137. His most memorable bout of recent memory took place last year when he earned a come-from-behind knockout win versus Pat Barry at UFC on Versus 4 in June.