On Thursday afternoon, it was announced Geronimo dos Santos had been pulled from his UFC 153 tango with Gabriel Gonzaga (Pictured). The promotion did not give a reason as to why dos Santos was removed from the October 13th lineup.
According to the trusty rumor mill, this move opens the door for either dos Santos (assuming he’s not injured) or Gonzaga to cross over and fight Daniel Cormier in Strikeforce’s final heavyweight fight. That event is slated to take place November 3rd in Oklahoma City.
Gonzaga made his triumphant return to the Octagon by beating Ednaldo Oliveira at UFC 142. “Napao” was released from the organization after posting a 8-5 mark in the UFC from 2005 to 2010.
The former heavyweight top contender was issued his walking papers after losing back-to-back bouts to Junior dos Santos and Brendan Schaub, respectively.
Dos Santos is a veteran of 45 bouts. He was finally set to make his big league debut on the strength of a 10-fight winning streak.
HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil hosts UFC 153.
Stay tuned to see what happens…
Here is the show’s current roster:
Preliminary Card:
(Facebook 6:45PM ET/3:45PM PT)
Cristiano Marcello vs. Reza Madadi
Luiz Cane vs. Chris Camozzi
Sergio Moraes vs. Renee Forte
(FX 8PM/5PM)
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. TBD
Joey Gambino vs. Diego Brandao
Francisco Trinaldo vs. Gleison Tibau
Rony “Jason” Bezerra vs. Sam Sicilia
Main Card:
(Pay-Per-View 10PM ET/7PM PT)
Demian Maia vs. Rick Story
Phil Davis vs. Wagner Prado
Jon Fitch vs. Erick Silva
Glover Teixeira vs. Fabio Maldonado
Dave Herman vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Stephan Bonnar vs. Anderson Silva (Three-round light heavyweight fight)
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