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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The change to the UFC Fight Night 24 main event is now official, as the organization announced that Phil Davis will step in for an injured Tito Ortiz to meet Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Ortiz was pulled from the fight late last week, and UFC President Dana White announced the change on Twitter, but now the organization has made it official. MMAJunkie.com later reported the cause of Ortiz's injury to be an accidental headbutt in training. The resulting cut required 22 stitches, though an MRI and CT scan showed no serious damage.
Davis now gets the opportunity to face a top ten light heavyweight for the first time in his young career. The 8-0 "Mr. Wonderful" was initially set to return at UFC 129 in Toronto, but now instead of being the number four fight on the card, he gets to bump himself up to the main event of this card.
Nogueira looks to rebound from a close decision loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 119. The loss marked his first in the UFC and snapped a seven-fight winning streak dating back to 2007.
UFC Fight Night 24 airs live on Spike TV from the KeyArena in Seattle, Wash., on March 26.
Penick's Analysis: Sounds like Ortiz won't be out for very long, and he'll get shifted to one of the summer cards for his final "must-win" fight in the organization. This replacement fight is still a lot more interesting anyway, as Davis is a bright prospect getting a major test in the longtime fight veteran in Nogueira. It's also a chance for Nogueira to get back on track by derailing Davis' hype train. It's a great, relevant light heavyweight fight, and is a fine Spike TV headliner.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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