With Renan Barao forced off the UFC 161 card due to an injury, the UFC has promoted the ‘Rashad Evans vs. Dan Henderson’ fight to be the new main event. In addition, the new headliner will remain a 3-round bout.
The poster for the event has been updated accordingly and added to the UFC 161 event page.
Fighter Profiles
Jose Aldo (22-1)
Anthony Pettis (16-2)
CageWall Event Page
UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis
Overview
Jose Aldo has reigned as the #1 featherweight in the world for almost four years now. His reign began in the WEC when he knocked out Mike Brown at WEC 44 to capture the WEC featherweight belt. He proceeded to defend that belt twice and then came over to the UFC post-WEC buyout and defended his new UFC featherweight belt another four times.
Aldo has pretty much dominated all of his title fights and is generally regarded as one of the Top 5 best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. On top of all that, he’s won three “Knockout of the Night” and two “Fight of the Night” bonuses, and is responsible for one of the most memorable moments in MMA history when he leaped into the UFC 142 Rio crowd after knocking out Chad Mendes with a brutal knee to the head with just a second left in the first round. Not bad for a guy who moved to Rio when he was 16 years old with little money, no job, on his own, and against his mother’s wishes.
The UFC made it official today that Renan Barao has been forced to withdraw from his title defense fight against Eddie Wineland at UFC 161 due to an injury:
The UFC published it’s latest Fighter Rankings following the UFC on FX 8 event this past weekend: http://www.ufc.com/rankings.
As expected, the winners and losers from this past weekend were the most active. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza moved up the most and is now the #6 middleweight. He moves up from #8 with Luke Rockhold taking the biggest hit and moving down from #5 to #7.
UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt announced via Twitter today that his visa issues have now been resolved:
Thank u for my visa father
— mark richard hunt (@markhunt1974) May 19, 2013
Rumors and reports from all over the globe have UFC’s interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao pulling out of his fight with Eddie Wineland next month due to injury. The fight is presently scheduled to take place June 15th at UFC 161 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. However, the UFC has not made any official announcements on the subject as of yet, so the fight is still on.
The UFC announced at the UFC on FX 8 post-event presser that UFC 163 is now a done deal for August 3rd at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janerio, Brazil.
Also confirmed is the headliner, champ Jose Aldo (22-1) vs. Anthony Pettis (16-2) for UFC’s featherweight title, and a welterweight match-up between Josh Koscheck (17-7) and Demian Maia (18-4).
A very lively crowd in Jaragua do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil celebrated with their beloved Vitor Belfort tonight as the former champion knocked out Luke Rockhold in convincing fashion via a spinning heel kick that landed flush to Luke’s head. A very impressive win for Vitor who proves once again that he’s one of the top middleweights in the world.
Fighter Profiles
Ben Rothwell (32-9)
Brandon Vera (12-6-0-1)
CageWall Event Page
UFC 164
Overview
Ben Rothwell has been alternating between wins and losses for almost five years now. Prior to establishing this pattern, Rothwell had a 13-fight win streak going. Since then, he is just 3-4 with his last fight being a second round guillotine choke submission loss to Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC on FX 7 in Brazil. Prior to that though, Rothwell scored a huge first round TKO win over Brendan Schaub at UFC 145 that earned him “Knockout of the Night”. The 31 year-old Wisconsin native will be fighting in a UFC event for the first time in his home state.
The UFC’s OSD (Official Statement Department) had a busy one today. The OSD released two statements pertaining Pat Healy’s failed UFC 159 drug test.
The first one is specific to the results of the UFC 159 drug tests:
