The UFC have pulled Urijah Faber from the UFC Fight Night 62 event in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil after his opponent Raphael Assuncao suffered an injury, and have now installed a new main event for the show on March 21st.
Demian Maia Vs Ryan LaFlare, which was originally scheduled to take the co-main event slot on the fight card, has now been moved up to main event duties.
Maia is coming off a unanimous decision victory against Alexander Yakovlev in Brazil back in May of last year, but had lost his previous two fights before that. He now has a 4-2 record overall since dropping down to 170lbs and is currently ranked No.7 in the division.
LaFlare is unbeaten as a professional with a perfect 11-0 record. So far he’s fought four times for the UFC, defeating the likes of John Howard and Court McGee which has allowed him to move into the welterweight rankings at No.15 and given him this opportunity to fight a top 10 ranked opponent for the first time as well as now giving him his first headline spot.
Maia Vs LaFlare isn’t the kind of match-up that’s going to have fans banging on the UFC’s door to get tickets, but there’s some solid scraps on the card overall including Josh Thomson Vs Gilbert Burns, Erick Silva Vs Ben Saunders and Leonardo Santos Vs Matt Wiman.
