Michael Kuiper was scheduled to face Caio Magalhaes at UFC on FX 7 in Brazil, but Magalhaes has pulled out of the fight with an injury and Kuiper has been moved to the UFC on FOX 6 card where he will face Buddy Roberts.
UFC officials announced the change on Thursday and the fight will take place on the preliminary card of the January 26th bout coming from the United Center in Chicago.
Kuiper (12-1) opened his career with eleven straight victories before making his UFC debut at the beginning of this year. His debut came at UFC 143 in February against Rafael Natal and was defeated by decision.
He returned to the octagon in August at UFC 150 and earned his first UFC victory by defeating Jared Hamman by TKO in the second round. It was his seventh career victory by TKO/KO and his last four wins have come by TKO/KO.
Roberts (12-3) entered the UFC last year as well and he made his debut at UFC on FX 3 in June. He won his UFC debut against Caio Magalhaes by unanimous decision in a light heavyweight bout and moved down to the middleweight division in his next fight.
He made his UFC middleweight debut at UFC 150 against former title contender Yushin Okami and was defeated in the second round by TKO. It was his first defeat since 2009, which was also a TKO defeat.
UFC on FOX 6 takes place on January 26th in Chicago at the United Center and will be headlined by Demetrious Johnson defending the UFC flyweight title for the first time when he takes on Ultimate Fighter winner John Dodson.