Every day lately seems to feature a fighter dropping out of a UFC bout due to injury. It even came out yesterday that Ryan Bader broke his right hand five weeks out from his bout with Ovince St. Preux. Luckily Bader remained in the bout and the UFC was not forced to reschedule both the main event and co-main event from last Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 47. There are two fights the UFC did need to find replacements for yesterday however. With less than a week to go before the event takes place, featherweight prospect Mirsad Bektic was forced out of his bout with Max Holloway in Tulsa. In his place, Clay Collard will make his UFC debut. Collard is 13-4 in his MMA career with 1 no contest, and has gone undefeated in his last five. Holloway himself was an injury replacement about a month ago for Bektic’s original opponent Ernest Chavez, so this bout has now completely changed from how it was initially scheduled. Holloway/Collard is just one of many bouts that weren’t Plan A for this card. Jordan Mein vs. Mike Pyle was made out of the wreckage from Mein vs. Thiago Alves (then Mein vs. Brandon Thatch) and Pyle vs. Demian Maia. Joby Sanchez is making his UFC debut against Wilson Reis because of an injury to Tim Elliott. UFC Fight Night 51 also saw some injury shuffling. Valerie Letourneau was scheduled to take on Jessica Andrade in Brasilia, but she too was forced out with an injury. In her place Jungle Fight’s women’s bantamweight champion Larissa Pacheco will step in to make her UFC debut. The undefeated 19-year-old Pacheco has finished all ten of her professional bouts, notching four TKOs and six submissions thus far. She provides another young face to the women’s division and definitely has potential, but also faces a tough test in her first trip in the Octagon. One non-injury related bout was added to an upcoming UFC card, as Cain Carrizosa and Chris Wade will become UFC veterans at UFC 177. The two lightweights will further expand the biggest division in the organization. The undefeated Carrizosa looks to stay that way, while Wade looks to extend his two-fight winning streak. Olympic Judo gold medallist Satoshi Ishii has quietly built a solid resume for himself in MMA. After being labelled a flop following his New Years Eve debut loss in 2009, he has gone 12-1-1, with the only loss coming against Fedor Emelianenko. He holds wins over fighters like Tim Sylvia and Pedro Rizzo, and looks to add Mirko CroCop to that list this weekend. In addition, M-1 Global just announced that he will be featured on their first foray into China which takes place on November 11th.
