UFC Fight Night 79: South Korea has taken a hit as co-headliner Thiago Alves has pulled out of the main event slot due to injury. The injury was confirmed as a rib injury as MMAjunkie.com reported.
Thiago Alves (21-10, 13-7 in UFC) was set to face the former UFC Lightweight champion Benson Henderson but will now likely be out until at least the Spring of 2016. Alves is coming off a loss to Carlos Condit in the early Summer by knockout. The resulting loss also left Alves with a broken nose.
The UFC has opted to replace Alves with Jorge Masvidal to face Benson Henderson in the nights headlining bout. Masvidal was originally set to face Dong Hyun Kim on the card and the UFC has yet to announce if a replacement will be sought for “Stun Gun”. Henderson (22-5, 10-3 in UFC) is coming off a spectacular Welterweight debut against Brandon Thatch in February at UFC Fight Night 60. Henderson opted to take time off from another fight up til now to focus on acclimating his body to the transition of fight at his new weight class of 170 lbs.
UFC Fight Night 79 takes place at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul, South Korea on November 28th and will be streaming live on UFC Fight Pass. The changes to card now include the following bouts for now:
MAIN CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 8 a.m ET)
-Benson Henderson vs. Jorge Masvidal
-Dong Hyun Kim vs. TBA
-Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alberto Mina
-Hyun Gyu Lim vs. Dominique Steele
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 4:45 a.m ET)
-Doo Ho Choi vs. Sam Sicilia
-Jake Collier vs. Dongi Yang
-Yui Chul Nam vs. Mike de La Torre
-Tae Hyun Bang vs. Leo Kuntz
-Courtney Casey vs. Seo Hee Ham
-Fredy Serrano vs. Yao Zhikui
-Marco Beltran vs. Ning Guangyou