Hacran Dias out at UFC Fight Night 34, promotion seeking replacement opponent for Tatsuya Kawajiri
Brazilian featherweight Hacran Dias has suffered an injury in training and has been forced to withdraw from a planned UFC Fight Night 34 bout with Tatsuya Kawajiri.
MMAjunkie.com today learned of the scratch from sources close to the event. A search is currently underway for a replacement opponent, though UFC executives have yet to make an official announcement.
Featuring a welterweight headliner between former Strikeforce champ Tarec Saffiedine and Korean contender Hyun Gyu Lim, UFC Fight Night 34 takes place Jan. 4 at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.
Kawajiri (32-7-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has fought outside of Asia just once – a 2011 Strikeforce loss to Gilbert Melendez for the now-defunct promotion’s lightweight title. That fight resulted in a first-round TKO loss in San Diego.
Since then, Kawajiri has won five straight fights for DREAM, as well as ONE FC, with four coming by stoppage. In 2011, after the loss to Melendez, he stopped Drew Fickett with punches and submitted Joachim Hansen and Kazuyuki Miyata.
Meanwhile, Dias (21-2-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) is a 29-year-old Brazilian who trains at Nova Uniao alongside UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and interim bantamweight title holder Renan Barao. “Barnabe†made his UFC debut in June 2012 with a decision win over Yuri Alcantara. However, he recently suffered a decision loss to Nik Lentz in May, snapping a nine-fight win streak.
Dias was expected to fight at October’s UFC Fight Night 29 event, but opponent Rodrigo Damm was forced to withdraw from the matchup days before the event, and the bout was scrapped.
A timetable for his return wasn’t immediately established.
