Irvin Out, Foupa-Pokam In Against McFedries at UFC 98
Drew McFedries
James Irvin has been forced out of his scheduled return at UFC 98 against Drew McFedries due to a knee injury and France’s Xavier Foupa-Pokam has been tapped to fill the vacant spot.
According to MMAjunkie, the bout hinges on Foupa-Pokam’s ability to resolve immigration issues, which could force the UFC to go in a different direction if not resolved quickly.
Barring a “Fight of the Night” performance, the loser of the May 23rd pay-per-view event in Las Vegas is likely to be cut by the promotion. McFedries has dropped two-straight fights to Mike Massenzio and Thales Leites and has won just three times in seven UFC bouts while Foupa-Pokam suffered a unanimous decision loss to Denis Kang in his UFC debut after winning seven-straight fights.
The UFC 98 fight card now features:
MAIN CARD (televised)
- Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida
- Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra
- Dan Miller vs. Yushin Okami
- Frank Edgar vs. Sean Sherk
- Brock Larson vs. Chris Wilson
PRELIMINARY CARD (un-televised)
- Xavier Foupa-Pokam vs. Drew McFedries
- Kyle Bradley vs. Phillipe Nover
- Pat Barry vs. Tim Hague
- Houston Alexander vs. Andre Gusmao
- Brandon Wolff vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
- David Kaplan vs. George Roop
For the latest UFC 98 news stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
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as much as i was looking forward to that matchup, i like this one even more, two guys who arent looking for a takedown, sometimes you just need a matchup like this. Good job UFC on keeping this fight interesting
I wanted to see Irvin- Mcfedries man. I don’t know much about the guy replacing Irvin, but i hope it’s still a stand-up fight. Mcfedries needs a win bad, he’s been on the losing side for quite some time now.
I was looking to see how good irvin looked as a 185er. he has ko power and I wanted to see him do damage, it sucks he isnt able to fight. the only fights im interested in seeing on this card is machida-evans, and the houston fight. I think sherk-edgar could be good and it might win fight of the night.
Damn dude this was going to be a great match. There was hella going to be a tko or ko in this fight. I don’t know much about xavier either but i hope they air this one if there is time because mcfredries is fun to watch imo. It will be kool to watch brock beat “the professor’s” ass too.
Professor X has some serious stand-up, I’m giving the edge to him in this one. I have to say though, that I am disappointed that Irvan can’t make the bout, as this was an awesome match-up in the first place. THis is probably the same injury he had before the Silva fight, which I’m glad he’s not using roids again to get past the injury. Does anyone know if it even was a knee injury before the Silva fight, or am I talking out of my @ss on that one?
It was a foot injury before the Silva fight, and he took painkillers, not steroids.
McFedries for the win