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