-
With Siyar Bahadurzada out at UFC 149, Chris Clements now meets Matt Riddle
Siyar Bahadurzada, who originally replaced an injured Yoshihiro Akiyama, is the latest scratch from July's UFC 149 event.
UFC officials today announced Bahadurzada has been forced to withdraw from the event due to injury, and Matt Riddle (6-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) now steps in to face Chris Clements (11-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC).
Clements was also a replacement fighter, moving into a slot originally reserved for Thiago Alves.
UFC 149 takes place July 21 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Main-card fights air on pay-per-view while preliminary-card fights air on FX and stream on Facebook.
Riddle looks to build on the strength of a hard-fought split-decision win over Henry Martinez at this past February's UFC 143 event. Riddle was then expected to fight Brazilian Luis Ramos at this past weekend's UFC on FX 4 event but was forced to pull out of the contest and was replaced by Matt Brown. It was the second time Riddle and Ramos were expected to meet, but after a second cancellation, "Deep Waters" will move on to a new target.
Clements, a Canadian fighter, recently made his promotional debut and earned a split-decision victory over Keith Wisniewski at April's UFC 145 event. "Menace," who got a UFC contract after regional-show wins over notables Jonathan Goulet and Rich Clementi, now has five straight victories. Ten of his 11 career wins have come via knockouts.
With the change, the UFC 149 card now includes:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)
- Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao (for interim bantamweight title)
- Tim Boetsch vs. Hector Lombard
- Shawn Jordan vs. Cheick Kongo
- James Head vs. Claude Patrick
- Chris Clements vs. Matt Riddle
PRELIMINARY CARD (FX)
- Court McGee vs. Nick Ring
- Roland Delorme vs. Francisco Rivera
- Ryan Jimmo vs. Anthony Perosh
- Bryan Caraway vs. Mitch Gagnon
- Antonio Carvalho vs. Daniel Pineda
- Mitch Clarke vs. Anton Kuivanen
* - Not officially announced
-
-
With Claude Patrick Injured, Brian Ebersole Faces James Head at UFC 149
When Brian Ebersole defeated T.J. Waldburger at June's UFC on FX 3 show, it was his fourth straight win in the octagon.
Always the unpredictable one, Ebersole surprised many by saying despite that success, he was going to consider a shift downward from welterweight to lightweight.
The move will wait, but instead he'll take another surprising path, putting his streak on the line in a short-notice bout as a replacement. Ebersole has agreed to step in and face James Head at UFC 149, the promotion confirmed.
Ebsersole is replacing Claude Patrick, who suffered an undisclosed injury in training and was forced out of the event.
It's just another injury that has racked the event, including others to featherweight champ and main eventer Jose Aldo as well as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Thiago Silva and others.
Ebersole comes in with a record of 50-14-1 and 1 no contest, and is fresh off the aforementioned win over Waldburger, which was a hard-fought unanimous decision.
Head, by contrast, is a relative MMA neophyte, with an 8-2 record. He recently got his first octagon win by defeating Papy Abedi by rear naked choke in the first round of their UFC on FUEL 2 match.
-
-
-
Renan Barao Sees Jose Aldo as UFC 149 Secret Weapon, Urijah Faber Disagrees
Brazil's Nova Uniao and California's Team Alpha Male have produced some of the best lighter weight fighters in mixed martial arts. Two of their top performers -- Brazilian Renan Barao and Californian Urijah Faber -- are headlining UFC 149 on July 21.
But it's not the first time the camps have paired off for divisional bragging rights. It happened as recently as April 2010, when Nova Uniao's dynamic Jose Aldo beat Faber in a featherweight title fight.
In that bout, Aldo went the distance with Faber and presumably learned plenty about his style and tendencies in the process. So it doesn't come as a surprise when Barao says he's leaned on his teammate for some advice in crafting a game plan for Faber.
"We had an excellent camp down here, we have an excellent strategy and obviously we benefitted from Aldo’s input," he said through an interpreter during a Thursday teleconference. "Aldo knows how Urijah fights, and he was also able to help us devise our strategy going in to make this camp, so thank God we had an excellent camp and we’ll be very ready for this fight."
Faber, however, says he stands both prepared for Barao's fighting prowess, and unconcerned about Aldo's advice. Originally scheduled to face bitter rival Dominick Cruz, he was forced to settle for the dangerous but still somewhat unknown Barao, who is the author of one of the longest unbeaten stretches in MMA history. Barao hasn't lost since his very first pro fight back in April 2005. Since then, he's fought 29 times, with 28 wins and one no contest.
In UFC and WEC fights, he's gone a perfect 5-0 with three finishes, making him the obvious replacement when Cruz went down. And even though Faber acknowledged that he enjoys Barao's aggressive style, he remains unfazed by the role of former opponent Aldo in Barao's camp. That was made abundantly clear when he was asked if Aldo's insight offered Barao any advantage.
"Is he going to bring Jose in there to help fight me? If so, then yes, but we’re all individuals," he said. "I feel like Renan, although he has a lot of similarities to Jose Aldo, he is a very different fighter. They're different sized fighters. They're different skill sets. It's a different fight. Same with me and my camp.
"I don't think that having Aldo’s input is going to change too much for me," he continued. "He’s probably going to tell him to kick me in the leg, but I’m sure Barao was planning to kick me in the leg anyway. I'm stoked for a great fight. I really like the camp I’m fighting against. It's kind of a fight pitting the two best light-weight camps in the world against each other, so I think we'll take extra pride in that for sure."
After a long run as a headliner in both the WEC and UFC, Faber is a well-known commodity in the MMA game, but Barao, who has fought on only two UFC main cards, remains far less known. On Thursday's conference call, it took over 20 minutes for him to field his first question, and even then, he had little to say except that he'd introduce or re-introduce himself to the masses in the octagon, presumably at Faber's expense.
After a sustained history of winning, Barao is considered a slight favorite to continue that long unbeaten run. But Faber believes he's got him well scouted, and that even an assist from Aldo won't be enough to overcome him.
"I think probably the thing he has going for him is just the confidence of coming off the 29 wins," he said. "He's human just like anyone else. That long streak is going to come to an end, and I'm the one to do it."
-
-
-
-
UFC 149 Fight Card: Faber vs. Barao
Main Card (PPV at 10 p.m. ET)
Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao
Hector Lombard vs. Tim Boetsch
Cheick Kongo vs. Shawn Jordan
Brian Ebersole vs. James Head
Chris Clements vs. Matt Riddle
Undercard (FX at 8 p.m. ET)
Court McGee vs. Nick Ring
Roland Delorme vs. Francisco Rivera
Ryan Jimmo vs. Anthony Perosh
Bryan Caraway vs. Mitch Gagnon
Undercard (Facebook at 7 p.m. ET)
Antonio Carvalho vs. Daniel Pineda
Mitch Clarke vs. Anton Kuivanen
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-