A broken toe has forced Mike Kyle to pull out of his World Series of Fighting 7 main event bout against Anthony Johnson, and the card will now be headlined by Georgi Karakhanyan meeting Lance Palmer for the inaugural featherweight title.
The World Series of Fighting officially announced the change on Thursday and Johnson will not receive a new opponent for the card.
World Series of Fighting 7: Karakhanyan vs. Palmer takes place on December 7th at PNE Agrodome in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and the main card will be shown live on NBCSN.
“I’m as disappointed as anyone that we’re forced to cancel this fight, but Mike just could not compete with his broken toe, and we simply could not find a suitable opponent for Anthony on such short notice,” World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo said. “That said, we are fortunate that we still have a fantastic championship matchup between Georgi Karakhanyan and Lance Palmer that will now serve as our main event, and I think fans are still going to enjoy an incredible fight card.”
This is the second time that the World Series of Fighting had scheduled Kyle and Johnson to meet. They were initially scheduled to face each other in the main event at World Series of Fighting 5, but Johnson had to pull out of the fight with an injury. It’s unknown if they will attempt to book this fight for a third time or if they will find a new opponent for Johnson.
Palmer (7-0) is a member of Team Alpha Male and recently won the RFA featherweight title in June when he defeated Jared Downing by split decision. Three of his seven victories have come by submission and two of those wins came in the first round.
Karakhanyan (14-3-1) has won eight in a row since exiting Bellator MMA in 2011. During his winning streak, four of those wins have come by submission, including his win over Waylon Lowe in his WSOF debut.
The current World Series of Fighting 7: Karakhanyan vs. Palmer is below.
Main Card: (NBCSN – 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT)
Georgi Karakhanyan (14-3-1) vs. Lance Palmer (7-0)
Elvis Mutapcic (13-2) vs. Jesse Taylor (26-9)
Nick Newell (10-0) vs. Sabah Fadai (7-2, 1NC)
Kalib Starnes (15-8-1) vs. Dwayne Lewis (13-8)
Preliminary Card: (WSOF.com – 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT)
Shawn Albrecht (9-5) vs. Josh Machan (11-4)
Michael Hill (5-2) vs. Richard Arsenault (9-2)
Matt Baker (9-4) vs. David Perron (5-2)
Ryan Chiappe (10-8) vs. Marcus Vinicius (20-5-1)
Jake MacDonald (3-0) vs. Myles Merola (10-7)
Micah Brakefield (3-1) vs. Brendan Kornberger (3-0)