Alex Garcia has pulled out of his fight next week at UFC Fight Night 89 against Colby Covington due to undisclosed reasons and stepping up to face Covington next Saturday in Ottawa will be UFC newcomer Jonathan Meunier.
The fight change was made official late Thursday evening by the UFC.
UFC Fight Night 89 will come from the TD Place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada next Saturday and will be headlined by a welterweight bout as former UFC title challenger Rory MacDonald meets Stephen Thompson.
Meunier (7-0) enters the UFC following a submission victory against Francis Charbonneau at Quebec Mixed Martial Arts League 5 in May and all of his victories have come by stoppage. Five of his seven wins have come by TKO/KO and he has only made it out of the first round once. Covington (8-1) made his UFC debut in 2014 and has gone 3-1 in the UFC. His most recent fight came in December at UFC 194 and he was defeated by Warlley Alves.
The current UFC Fight Night 89: MacDonald vs. Thompson fight card lineup is below.
Main Card: (FS1 – 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT)
Rory MacDonald (18-3) vs. Stephen Thompson (12-1)
Donald Cerrone (29-7, 1NC) vs. Patrick Cote (23-9)
Steve Bosse (11-2) vs. Sean O’Connell (17-7)
Olivier Aubin-Mercier (8-2) vs. Thibault Gouti (11-1)
Valerie Letourneau (8-4) vs. Joanne Calderwood (10-1)
Preliminary Card: (FS2 – 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT)
Jason Saggo (11-2) vs. Leandro Silva (19-2-1 1NC)
Misha Cirkunov (11-2) vs. Ion Cutelaba (11-1)
Tamdan McCrory (14-3) vs. Krzysztof Jotko (17-1)
Chris Beal (10-2) vs. Joe Soto (15-5)
Preliminary Card: (UFC Fight Pass – 6:45 p.m. ET/3:45 p.m. PT)
Elias Theodorou (11-1) vs. Sam Alvey (25-7 1NC)
Randa Markos (5-3) vs. Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger (6-2)
Colby Covington (8-1) vs. Jonathan Meunier (7-0)
Ali Bagautinov (13-4) vs. Geane Herrera (9-1)