Tyron Woodley in for Hector Lombard, Meets Dong Hyun Kim at UFC Fight Night 48

[Swinny]

Tyron Woodley in for Hector Lombard, meets Dong Hyun Kim at UFC Fight Night 48

After a lackluster loss to fellow welterweight contender Rory MacDonald earlier this month at UFC 174, Tyron Woodley now has a major opportunity to get back in to title contention.

UFC President Dana White today announced that Woodley (13-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) has replaced injured Hector Lombard (34-4-1 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and will fight Dong Hyun Kim (19-2-1 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in UFC Fight Night 48′s co-headliner.

As White wrote (via Instagram): “Just let Dong Hyun Kim officially know that Lombard is out injured and Woodley is in for #ufcmacao #venetiansands #ufcchina #ufcâ€

UFC Fight Night 48 takes place takes place Aug. 23 at The Venetian Macao’s CotaiArena. The event, which is expected to stream on UFC Fight Pass, features a middleweight headliner between Michael Bisping (24-6 MMA, 14-6 UFC) and Cung Le (9-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC).

Kim is ranked No. 7 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings, and Woodley is No. 9.

The extent of the injury isn’t clear for Lombard, who’s ranked No. 14.

Woodley, a former Strikeforce fighter and standout wrestler at the University of Missouri, won three of his first four UFC fights, which included knockout wins over Jay Hieron, Josh Koscheck and Carlos Condit (who injured a knee in the fight). That set up the fight with MacDonald, which was expected to vault the winner into a No. 1 contender’s bout (or even a title shot). However, MacDonald shut down the 32-year-old and swept the scorecards for a 30-27 decision victory.

Kim, meanwhile, has won four straight fights, and he has back-to-back knockout victories and back-to-back fight-night bonuses. In March, the 32-year-old Korean landed a spinning back elbow to stop John Hathaway in the main event of the UFC’s previous show in Macau for a “Performance of the Night†award. This past October, he got a “Knockout of the Night†win over Erick Silva in Brazil.

MMAJunkie

 

[The Great Cochrane]

Well then, damn.

Considering the beating Woodley took at the hands of Rory, I'd have to say that he's a stud for taking this fight.

Also, I have a lot of respect for Woodley because he's also studying for business administration which specializes in non profit while fighting in the UFC. That's pretty big, props to T-Wood.

 

[Swinny]

Yeah, he clearly wants to get in there and make people forget about his last fight, rather than sulk about it, so props to him. Going to be an interesting fight.