The bad news for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Thiago Silva has suffered an undisclosed injury that will force the light heavyweight out of his UFC 149 bout against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (Pictured). The good news for the UFC has a little bit of bad news mixed in it – they have the perfect candidate in mind to replace Silva, but Shogun’s camp is reportedly running from Glover Teixeira like he’s got the plague.
“With Thiago hurt, we turned to Glover and asked him to go right back in to fight Shogun at UFC 149,” White told MMAjunkie. “But Shogun’s people are adamantly refusing to take the fight.
“They want nothing to do with Glover. Shogun wants nothing to do with Glover, but that’s the fight [UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta] and I are trying to put together.”
Teixeira’s long-awaited big league debut had been postponed due to visa issues, but the Brazilian made up for lost time by quickly disposing of Kyle Kingsbury with a 1stRound arm triangle choke just six days ago at UFC 146.
The 32-year-old hasn’t lost a scrap since March of 2005, rattling off 16 straight victories during that span.
Shogun has alternated between wins and losses over his past six bouts. He was last seen dropping a controversial decision defeat to Dan Henderson at UFC 139 in November.
The former light heavyweight champion hasn’t collected consecutive victories since April 2009.
Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada hosts the July 21st festivities. Shogun is slated to co-headline the show – against Teixeira, if the UFC gets their way.
Here is the card’s revised lineup:
Preliminary Card:
Ryan Jimmo vs. Anthony Perosh
Mitch Clarke vs. Anton Kuivanen
Claude Patrick vs. James Head
Bryan Caraway vs. Mitch Gagnon
George Roop vs. Antonio Carvalho
Court McGee vs. Nick Ring
Main Card:
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. TBD
Thiago Alves vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
Michael Bisping vs. Tim Boetsch
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cheick Kongo
Erik Koch vs. Jose Aldo (UFC featherweight champion)
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