An injury has caused another shake-up to the fight card
of UFC on FOX 8.
Former Strikeforce welterweight champion Tarec Saffiedine
has been forced withdraw from a scheduled main card bout against Robbie Lawler,
UFC officials announced on Tuesday. Afghan slugger Siyar Bahadurzada now meets
Lawler as a late-replacement.
Injuries also played in a part in Saffiedine’s rejection
of a short-notice bout against Carlos Condit earlier this year at UFC 158.
Bahadurzada (21-5-1) suddenly finds himself with a chance
to rebound from his latest setback to an expected audience of millions on
network television. The 29-year-old racked up an impressive seven-fight win
streak from 2009 to 2012, including six finishes and an electric 42-second
knockout of Paulo Thiago, before seeing his hype train derailed by the grinding
offense of Dong Hyun Kim in March.
Kim took Bahadurzada down to the canvas and held him
there all three rounds, stifling the Afghan to the tune of just five landed
significant strikes the entire fight according to FightMetric, to easily claim
a unanimous decision victory.
However Bahadurzada now looks to right his ship against
Lawler (20-9, 1 NC), a Strikeforce import who stunned in his UFC debut by
knocking out Josh Koscheck less than four minutes into the first round. The
resounding win propelled Lawler into No. 9 in the official UFC welterweight
rankings, marking an end to an up-and-down Strikeforce run that saw the
31-year-old lose five of his eight contests.
UFC on FOX 8 takes place July 27, 2013 at the Key Arena
in Seattle, Washington. UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson defends his
belt against John Moraga in the night’s main event. (Source)
