An injury to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has forced the Brazilian star to be removed from his headline spot at ‘UFC On Fuel TV 2’ against Alexander Gustaffson on April 14th in Sweden.
The UFC have quickly come up with an alternative however and Thiago Silva will now step in to fight Gustafsson in the main event.
Silva is coming off a year’s suspension after testing positive for steroids following his fight with Brandon Vera at UFC 125 in January of 2011 which resulted in his victory being amended to a no-contest.
He had originally been expected to rematch Vera upon his return, but an injury to ‘The Truth’ put that fight on hold and the Brazilian was instead paired up with Igor Pokrajac, but that bout has also now been scrapped.
Despite his somewhat patchy form in recent years which has seen him drop to defeat against two of the light-heavyweight top contenders Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida, Silva is still seen as a dangerous competitor and is a good replacement for Lil Nog under the circumstances.
Meanwhile, Swedish born fighter Gustafsson has emerged as one of the 205lb division’s most promising up and comers, stringing together a four-fight winning run in the UFC, all inside the distance, that’s included wins over the likes of Matt Hamill and Vladimir Matyushenko.
