An injury has forced The Ultimate Fighter 8 light heavyweight winner Ryan Bader (15-3, 8-3 UFC) out of May’s UFC 160 event. Bader was scheduled to take on rising light heavyweight contender Glover Teixeira (20-2, 3-0 UFC) in a pivotal bout.
Stepping in will be another rising light heavyweight as James Te Huna (16-5, 5-1 UFC) puts his four-fight win streak on the line against the 18-fight win streak that Teixeira has amassed. Australian website The Age reported the news on Monday evening and the booking was later confirmed by UFC officials.
Te Huna last competed in February at UFC On FUEL TV 8, where he made a memorable entrance (see the video here) and followed it up with a unanimous decision win over Ryan Jimmo. Te Huna has also scored wins over Joey Beltran, Aaron Rosa and Ricardo Romero during his win streak, and the only loss of his UFC career has come to Alexander Gustafsson.
Teixeira has scored wins over Kyle Kingsbury, Fabio Maldonado, and, most recently, Quinton Jackson during his stint in the UFC, and you have to go all the way back to May 2005 to find a blemish on Teixeira’s record. He currently sits as #4 in the UFC Light Heavyweight Rankings.
UFC 160 takes place on May 25 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The night’s main card airs on pay-per-view while the prelims air on FX & Facebook. Cain Velasquez defends the UFC Heavyweight Championship against Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in the night’s main event. Teixeira vs. Te Huna is expected to be on the night’s main card.
The current UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2 card shapes up like this:
- Cain Velasquez(c) vs. Antonio Silva (UFC Heavyweight Championship)
- Junior Dos Santos vs. Mark Hunt
- Glover Teixeira vs. James Te Huna
- Gray Maynard vs. T.J. Grant
- Donald Cerrone vs. K.J. Noons
- Mike Pyle vs. Gunnar Nelson
- Amir Sadollah vs. Stephen Thompson
- Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Abel Trujillo
- Robert Whittaker vs. Colton Smith
- Jeremy Stephens vs. Estevan Payan
