A knee injury has forced rising middleweight Alessio Sakara to withdraw from his UFC 118 fight against Gerald Harris, but Joe Vedepo will return to the UFC and meet Harris at the August 28 event in Boston, MMAFighting reports.
The matchup remained on the Spike-televised UFC 118 prelims when Harris recently replaced an injured Jorge Rivera, but will now take place on the unaired preliminary card, according to MMA Weekly.
It has not yet been determined what bout will replace it on the Spike prelims, which also feature Joe Lauzon vs. late-replacement Gabe Ruediger.
Vedepo (11-3) has won four-straight since being released by the UFC in 2009 following back-to-back losses, while Harris (17-2) scored a highlight reel slam KO Dave Branch at July’s UFC 116 to improve to 3-0 in the UFC.
The UFC 118 fight card is headlined by a rematch between lightweight champ Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn and also features Randy Couture vs. James Toney and Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard.
For complete UFC 118 coverage, including UFC 118 results on Aug. 28, stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
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no more injuries on this card please…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sakara saying to much to lose, nothing to win, fake the knee, and let’s try again on another day. I do hope that is the case and it is nothing serious.
Nothing to win? With Sakara’s fighting style his W would most likely come the way of a knockout, and on spike beeing watched by millions of people.
I think that stands as something to win.
Raw deal for Harris though who went from big time exposure to un-aired prelims.
In a way though I think its better for both fighters that sakara got hurt because it should be an easier fight now for harris and I’m sure when sakara does come back he’ll be on a main card
Hopefully harris handles vedepo quick and gets another fight in before the end of the year
Apologies if I’m mistaken, but are you insinuating that Alessio Sakara is somehow feigning an injury to avoid a fight?
If so, thats a bit out of bounds, no, calling into question the guy’s honesty and sense of sportsmanship?
it seems like ever sense ufc 100 people have been getting injured left and right. i mean think about it
I think what Coach wanted to say was maybe that Sakara had a lot more to lose than Gerald Harris??
With that said, I think Harris is still going to be on the Spike tv-card, but like everyone else, I’m a tad bit dissapointed that Harris isnt fighting “better” than Vedepo. (By better I mean not Sakara)