February 21st will host UFC Fight Night: Cowboy vs. Cowboy, but the fight card we’ll be getting on Sunday has received a massive make over courtesy of the injury bug.
The Pittsburg event, originally headlined by a welterweight affair between Donald Cerrone and Tim Means, was compromised when Tim Means tested positive for an illegal substance. Cerrone stayed on the card, still set to make his 170 lb debut, but now he’ll be taking on Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira in the new main event. Oliveira is 3-1 in the UFC, and recently made the drop to lightweight, but will be avoiding the weight cut for this match up. Oliveira will be stepping in on about 3 weeks notice as the UFC Fight Night 83 main event feature.
Set to be a violent bantamweight match up, former flyweight John Lineker and upstart Cody Garbrandt were set to throw down on the main card. Both Lineker and Garbrandt are two of the most exciting sluggers in the bantamweight division; this can be seen by Lineker’s bantamweight debut against Francisco Rivera, and Garbrandt’s TKO over Marcus Brimage. However, John Lineker pulled out when he came down with dengue fever on February 15th. A replacement has stepped in to face Cody Garbrandt on one weeks notice. Garbrandt will now face promotional newcomer Augusto “Taquinho” Mendes.
Another main card feature, this one between Brandon Thatch and Siyar Bahadurzada, was also scrapped from the event. Thatch was unable to get medical clearance for the event. Their bout will still happen, but not until UFC 196 on March 5th. Thatch is coming off of two straight losses – to Gunnar Nelson and Benson Henderson – while Bahadurzada hasn’t been seen since his two-fight skid in 2013.
A hand injury suffered by Trevor “Hot Sauce” Smith also occurred one week out from the event. Smith was scheduled to face Leonardo Guimaraes, but because of the injury a replacement is currently being sought out for Trevor Smith. Guimaraes is currently 2-1 in the UFC, and was last seen capturing a split decision victory over Andy Enz last year. While this match up wasn’t necessarily a star-studded one , it appears this fight will most likely be scrapped in total and not be featured at UFC Fight Night 83.
One the event’s female match ups between Sarah Moras and Lauren Murphy was also taken off the card following an injury suffered by Moras. Both Moras and Murphy are coming off of losses, and were hoping to get back on the winning track. Murphy was last seen dropping a decision against Liz Carmouche back in April of 2015. Sarah “Cheesecake” Moras was last seen dropping a decision to Jessica Andrade. A substitute was currently being sought out to face Murphy, but now that we’re less than a week away from the event – a replacement is unlikely for UFC Fight Night 83.
A match up that fortunately did get a replacement is Daniel Sarafian vs. Oluwale Bamgbose. Sarafian was originally scheduled to face Sam Alvey, but back in December, Alvey made the announcement that he suffered an injury. Sarafian hasn’t been in the Octagon since 2014 when he won via finger injury against Antonio dos Santos. A lot of fans were excited to see “Smilin” Sam Alvey back in the Octagon following his KO loss to Derek Brunson, but we’ll have to wait longer. Speaking of Derek Brunson, he’ll be fighting on the card (barring injury) against Roan Carneiro in the co-main event.
I think I covered all the injuries, but as you can see, UFC Fight Night 83 has received an entire make over. Luckily, this fight is on free TV, but being that it’s on a Sunday I can’t imagine the ratings will be anything of note. Stay tuned for more UFC Fight Night 83 coverage.
