UFC 203’s co-main event has been rejigged after Ben Rothwell was forced to pull out of his fight with Fabricio Werdum due to a knee injury.
The 34 year-old Rothwell, who was coming off a loss to Junior dos Santos back in April, is believed to have suffered a torn miniscus and may also have an ACL injury, which could keep him out of action for quite some time.
UFC officials have acted quickly to draft in a well qualified replacement for the No.5 ranked Rothwell, however, with current No.7 Travis Browne now stepping up to fight the former heavyweight champion instead.
Browne fought Werdum back at UFC On FOX 11 two years ago in a title eliminator, losing out by unanimous decision on the night.
Since then, ‘Hapa’ has alternated between wins and losses in the division, picking up wins over Brendan Schaub and Matt Mitrione inbetween losses to Andrei Arlovski and Cain Velasquez.
As for Werdum, following his initial win over Browne the Brazilian star went on to defeat Mark Hunt to claim the interim heavyweight title, and then unified the title by defeating the champion at the time, Velasquez by guillotine choke at UFC 188.
Werdum was unable to successfully defend his title however, suffering a first round KO loss to Stipe Miocic at UFC 198 back in May.
With Werdum Vs Browne now set for the co-main event, UFC 203 proceeds with a heavyweight title fight between new champion Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem remaining as the main event, along with the debut of former WWE star CM Punk Vs Mickey Gall.
