Following Bellator being granted an injunction against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson from fighting at UFC 186, the UFC has signed Steve Bosse to meet Fabio Maldonaldo on the April 25th card coming from Montreal.
UFC officials announced the new fight booking on Friday and issued a statement on the change.
“At the moment, Jackson and his representatives plan to appeal the court’s order, but with the event drawing nearer, the UFC has had to take action to ensure a suitable replacement was found to face Maldonado,” the UFC statement said.
UFC 186 will come from the Bell Centre and will be headlined by a title fight as Demetrious Johnson defending the flyweight title against Kyoji Horiguchi.
Bosse (10-1) was initially signed by the UFC last year, but elected to retire. This will be his first fight since May of 2013 and he is currently on an eight fight winning streak. Maldonado (22-7) is coming off a win against Hans Stringer and has won four of his last five fights. He won a performance of the night bonus against Stringer and he has won two fight night bonuses in his UFC career.
The current UFC 186: Johnson vs. Horiguchi fight card is below.
Main Card: (PPV – 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT)
Demetrious Johnson (21-2-1) vs. Kyoji Horiguchi (15-1)
Michael Bisping (25-7) vs. C.B. Dolloway (15-6)
Fabio Maldonaldo (22-7) vs. Steve Bosse (10-1)
John Makdessi (12-3) vs. Shane Campbell (11-2)
Thomas Almeida (17-0) vs. Yves Jabouin (20-9)
Preliminary Card: (Fox Sports 1 – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Patrick Cote (20-9) vs. Joe Riggs (40-15, 1NC)
Sarah Kaufman (17-2, 1NC) vs. Alexis Davis (16-6)
Chad Laprise (10-0) vs. Bryan Barberena (10-2)
Olivier Aubin-Mercier (6-1) vs. David Michaud (8-1)
Preliminary Card: (Fight Pass – 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT)
Nordine Taleb (10-2) vs. Chris Clements (12-5, 1NC)
Jessica Rakoczy (1-4) vs. Valerie Letourneau (6-3)
Aisling Daly (15-5) vs. Randa Markos (4-2)