4. Claudio Silva vs. Nordine Taleb (Welterweight Bout)
With Silva on an 11-win streak since losing his debut match to Matt Thrope over a disqualification, the 32-year-old Brazilian-born Silva is back in the Welterweight division after his first 11 matches in Middleweight. Taleb is coming off a fiery UFC debut in 2014 where he won a pair of decision fights over Vik Grujic and Li Jingliang. It would have been nice to see two of the fastest rising UFC stars face off.
But Silva will have to wait a while longer to return to the octagon, as a broken foot he suffered has ended the match. UFC has replaced Silva with Chris Clements, who has only 4 fights under his belt in the last three years and has gone 2-1 with a no contest loss to Matthew Riddle.
3. Abel Trujillo vs. John Makdessi (Catchweight Bout)
With two Lightweight contenders in Trujillo and Makdessi coming off 2014 losses, it would have been a great match to see if Trujillo could score an upset over the knockout artist Makdessi. But apparently it was just not meant to be.
Trujillo was pulled from the fight on April 1st due to a broken arm, and UFC was forced to scramble to find his replacement – and all they got was someone from The Replacements… Instead, Makdessi will now face UFC newcomer Shane Campbell (a guy who doesn’t even have his own Wikipedia page) on the Main Card of all places.
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