Junior dos Santos Off UFC 102; McCully-Russow, Duffee-Hague Now Set For Preliminary Card
Heavyweight prospect Junior dos Santos (8-1, 2-0 UFC), who recorded first-round knockouts of Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve in his 2 UFC bouts, has been pulled from his UFC 102 matchup against Justin McCully for undisclosed reasons.
McCully announced on MMAjunkie Radio on Wednesday that he’ll instead fight newcomer Mike Russow at the August 29 event in Portland, Oregon.
Another UFC newcomer, Todd Duffee, who had been slated to fight Russow at the pay-per-view event, will instead take on Tim Hague.
Both McCully-Russow and Duffee-Hague will take place on the unaired preliminary card.
Though no reason has yet been given for lineup changes, it appears likely that dos Santos was pulled from the card for a better matchup at one of the UFC’s fall events. Adding the exciting up-and-comer dos Santos to the main card for the UFC’s September 19 event in Dallas, UFC 103, could supplement a still to-be-booked but likely weaker-than-normal main event, especially if he’s matched against another attention-grabbing heavyweight such as Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (should he return to the UFC).
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[Pictured: Junior dos Santos]
Tags: Junior dos Santos, Justin McCully, mike russow, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, Tim Hague, Todd Duffee
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I wanted to see dos Santos werdum McCully
So did I. Looks like mcCully dodged a beatdown and will probably keep his job now that dos santos is out.
Anyone know why he was pulled?
* never mind just realized the article answered that
Dos Santos vs. Cro Cop in Dallas would be awesome! Kick Escudero and Miller to undercard
That would be an awesome fight, but i doubt the ufc would do that. I mean, the guy was slated to face Justin McCully. I dont think they would set him up to face a guy like Cro-Cop, who has lots of experience, and has faced tougher competition than Dos Santos has.
Not that Dos Santos wouldnt have a chance against him….because anybody can win in MMA as we all know..
man i wonder what happened, i want to see Dos Santos keep moving up the ladder and keep beating guys down like he did Werdum,….:D i still can’t get over the fact tha Werdum just put his head down and waaayy before Dos Santos landed the punch, anyway, i hope to see Dos Santos back soon.
What happened was is the UFC finally woke up and smelt the coffee by saying “oh ya this guy just KTFO two guys and we have him on the undercard.” “hmmmmmmmm something doesnt seem right here does it Dana” “you know what we just took Carwin and Cain off UFC 103 so lets get this guy whos sure to bang it out and be a threat in the division soon, and match him up with another big name guy like Kongo or Cro-cop and make a ****3n fight out of this.” “wow great idea il rearange the 102 card pronto” It probably went something like that.
Heath Herring vs. Dos Santos to please the Texas crowd?
Herring is taking some time off, maybe he’s resting his brain like Chuck.
I think Kongo would be a good opponent for dos Santos in that he’s experienced, can be dangerous if the fight is kept upright, but has a glaring weakness once grounded.
dos Santos can start the bout exchanging strikes, and if and when things get dicey, he can put Kongo on the mat, where he goes from H*ll on wheels to helpless, and probably finish him either by sub or g-n-p.
Come to think of it, the same could be said for Mirko CroCop, but thats a topic for a different day…