Fans who were finally hoping to see a Light Heavyweight fight between Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua fight ‘Sugar’ Rashad Evans will have to wait a little while longer after it was announced Wednesday that Rua had pulled out of their bout at UFC on Fox 19. Rua will be replaced by former Light Heavyweight title contender Glover Texeira. The news was broken by Damon Martin of FOX Sports on Wednesday. The two will face off on April 16th in Florida.
Teixeira had previously challenged Jon Jones for the Light Heavyweight title two years ago at UFC 172, but lost via unanimous decision. Texeira then lost to former UFC fighter Phil Davis, but later put on a string of victories over Ovince Saint Preux and Patrick Cummins. Evans had been the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion until losing to Lyoto Machida way back in 2009. Evans had a two year layoff due surgeries after victories over Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen. Evans was supposed to fight Texeira last year, but had to pull out for another surgery.