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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Two upcoming UFC events have gotten a shakeup, as Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has suffered a knee injury, taking him out of a main event fight with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC on Fuel TV 2 in Sweden next month.
With that injury, Thiago Silva has been pulled from his UFC on Fuel 3 bout on May 15 with Igor Pokrajac and moved up to take on Gustafsson in that main event slot on April 14. Swedish MMA site MMANytt.se first reported the news, with the UFC confirming the switch shortly thereafter.
Silva returns for the first time since January 1 of 2011. He failed a drug test out of his fight with Brandon Vera on the card, so the win was overturned to a no-contest and he was handed a one-year suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. He's now served that suspension, and hopes to get back on track with just one official win in his last three fights.
Gustafsson hopes to continue his momentum in the UFC's light heavyweight division. The 6'5" Swede has won four straight fights since suffering his only career loss - a first round submission to now teammate Phil Davis - and he has finished each of those fights. Most recently, he took Vladimir Matyushenko in the first round at UFC 141. Of his 13 wins, all but one have come by knockout or submission.
Penick's Analysis: This is still an immensely good fight. Thiago Silva is a highly talented and dangerous fighter, whose only losses have come against Lyoto Machida - who went on to capture the UFC Title after their fight - and Rashad Evans, who had to survive a third round flurry from Silva to take home a decision win over him. Gustafsson is one of the bright up and coming prospects, and a win in this fight should continue his ascension to the top of the division. It's not necessarily a better fight than Gustafsson-Nogueira, but it's at least on par with that fight, and makes for an awesome and competitive main event fight for the fans in Sweden.
[Thiago Silva art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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