A fractured orbital bone has forced Phil Harris to pull out of his UFC 163 bout against John Lineker and replacing Harris in the bout will be Jose Maria Tome.
Harris confirmed the injury on Twitter and the UFC has made the new bout between Lineker and Tome official.
UFC 163 takes place on August 3rd from the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and will be headlined by Jose Aldo defending the UFC featherweight title against Chan Sung Jung.
Tome (33-3, 1NC) has won twelve in a row and is 16-0, 1NC in his last seventeen fights. His last eight victories have come by stoppage with five of those wins coming in the first round.
Lineker (21-6) entered the UFC last year and lost his debut with the promotion against Louis Gaudinot. Since then, he has won back to back fights and he recently defeated Azamat Gashimov by knockout in the second round at UFC on FX 8.
The current UFC 163: Aldo vs. Jung fight card is below:
Main Card: (PPV – 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT)
Jose Aldo (22-1) vs. Chan Sung Jung (13-3)
Lyoto Machida (19-3) vs. Phil Davis (11-1, 1NC)
Cezar Ferreira (5-2) vs. Thiago Marreta Santos (8-1)
Thales Leites (20-4) vs. Tom Watson (16-5)
John Lineker (21-6) vs. Jose Maria Tome (33-3)
Preliminary Card: (FX – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Vinny Magalhaes (10-6, 1NC) vs. Anthony Perosh (13-7)
Amanda Nunes (7-3) vs. Sheila Gaff (10-5-1)
Sergio Moraes (7-3) vs. Neil Magny (8-2)
Ian McCall (11-4-1) vs. Illiarde Santos (27-7-1, 1NC)
Preliminary Card: (Facebook – 6:35 p.m. ET/3:35 p.m. PT)
Rani Yahya (18-7) vs. Josh Clopton (6-1-1)
Ednaldo Oliveira (13-1-1, 1NC) vs. Francimar Barroso (15-3)
Bristol Marunde (12-8) vs. Viscardi Andrade (13-5)