Gleison Tibau Replaces Thiago Tavares at The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Apr 24, 2009 at 6:07 pm ET13 Comments
Gleison Tibau
Mere hours after it was learned that Thiago Taveres had been forced out of his Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale matchup against Melvin Guillard due to an elbow injury, Gleison Tibau has been tapped to square off with Guillard in a lightweight contest on June 20th in Las Vegas.
MMAjunkie first reported the replacement earlier this afternoon.
After losing back-to-back UFC bouts to Tyson Griffin and Joe Stevenson, Tibau (16-6) has bounced back in 2009 with victories over Rich Clementi and Jeremy Stephens.
Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale news.
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Good replacement,Tibau si good, he can sub Melvin and problably control him. Tibau just beat Jeremy Stephens who’s a good and tough fighter. If he gets passed Guillard he should be on his way up to fight a semi contender, but also maybe not..the guy lost to Joe Daddy who IMO is greatly overrated and needs to go to the WEC and compete at 145.
I think Joe is overrated too, but 145 is a huge cut for the guy. I bet you Stevenson woke up ovedr 180lbs this morning, that’s some unhealthy weight loss. Joe Riggs style.
Nice, I like this match-up much better. I think Melvin’s submission defence will be stepped up, but I don’t know if it will have stepped up enough to defend from Tibau. These are also some really big 155ers, should be a good fight.
This fight just got better.
don’t think the fight got better, but it looks like they are definately testing how much guillards ground game has improved to see if he infact does have the potential that he shows glimpses of every now and again.
Tibau needs to be catious with the stand up and go straight for the sub or he’ll get guillarded!
Dude Joe daddy IS hella overrated.
guillard is greatly talented, but the guy just hasnt put his ego aside to train properly, he has great ko power, but needs to work on his ground game. I like this matchup and TUF9 finale looks like a ppv. there are some damn good fights on that card, just no huge names.
It should be free on spike, they’ve never had PPV for the finale’s in the past and I don’t see them starting now with this card.
These guys fighting each other is rather interesting, I’m not a huge fan of either but this can be one hell of a battle… I think this is an easier fight for Guillard than the original bout but should be a hell of a time…
realy i think this just got tougher for guillard unless he keeps it standing the whole fight, in that case wed be treated to quite KO,so is tibau the new go to replacement guy.
I personally believe that Gulliard has a better oppritunity to win this fight standing and that Tibau will be more willing to stand for the majority of the first two rounds, and with Gulliard’s quick power that he does have he could do well while standing… Tibau I believe is just trying to keep White and Silva happy by taking every fight he can and perhaps he can look better in these “short notice” fights and grab some wins.. I could be completely wrong too..
@figs, what I meant by it looks like a ppv is that this card has some really good fights on there, unlike other tuf finales where it had one guy who was a middle of the pack guy at his division. on this finale, probably the winner of guida(the caveman)-diego gets the next title shot, and diaz-stevenson, stevenson just had a title shot less than 12 months ago. not to mention anthony “rumble” johnson is on the card, he is perhaps the future champ at 170 in two years. this whole card will probably produce “exciting” ko’s.
ya this card is realy stacked for a fight night finale when i checked it out i was dissapointed that we wont get to see some of these fights cause the show usually only goes four 2 hours
im liking this card ..im hoping to see clay guida get put down by sanchez early…..and a diaz choke on stevenson….i definetly see tibau having the size advantage but if guilard can keep it standing i see a KO victory for him…