It was revealed over the weekend that Antonio Rogerio Nogueira had pulled out of his UFC 161 co-main event fight against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and the UFC was unable to find a new opponent for Rua.
It appeared the UFC was looking to have Chael Sonnen replace Nogueira against Shogun, but the UFC was unable to make the fight happen.
On Monday evening, Shogun tweeted that the fight would not take place and he is hoping to return at UFC on FS 1 on August 17th in Boston.
With the UFC being unable to find an opponent for Shogun, UFC 161 will now have 11 fights and once again the main card has been shuffled.
UFC 161 takes place next Saturday night at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg and the tentative fight card lineup is below:
Main Card: (PPV – 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT)
Rashad Evans (22-3-1) vs. Dan Henderson (29-9)
Roy Nelson (20-7) vs. Stipe Miocic (9-1)
Alexis Davis (11-5) vs. Rosi Sexton (13-2)
Pat Barry (8-5) vs. Shawn Jordan (14-4)
Ryan Jimmo (17-2) vs. Igor Pokrajac (25-9, 1NC)
Preliminary Card: (FX – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Jake Shields (27-6-1, 1NC) vs. Tyron Woodley (11-1)
Sam Stout (20-8-1) vs. James Krause (19-4)
Sean Pierson (13-6) vs. TJ Waldburger (16-7)
Roland Delorme (8-1, 1NC) vs. Edwin Figueroa (9-2)
Preliminary Card: (Facebook – 6:35 p.m. ET/3:35 p.m. PT)
Mitch Clarke (9-2) vs. John Maguire (18-5)
Yves Jabouin (18-8) vs. Dustin Pague (11-8)