TAMPA, Florida – UFC on Fox: Teixeira vs. Evans (also known as UFC on Fox 19) is set for this weekend on April 16, 2016 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The card has seen some serious losses as to what it was supposed to be, but will still be one to watch for the main event alone.
The road back to the Bay has been long and winding as this event will only be the second that the UFC has hosted in the Tampa Bay Area, and first since UFC Fight Night: Lauzon vs. Stephens in February 2009.
The main event has already seen several twists and turns as It was expected to be headlined by a potential UFC Lightweight Championship title eliminator bout between undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson. On April 5, it was announced that Ferguson pulled out of the bout due to a lung issue. Therefore, the Teixeira-Evans bout was elevated to a five-round main event status.
The only reason Evans was able to step into the main event was because his fight too, was cancelled and he had the opening. Maurício Rua was expected to face Rashad Evans but Rua pulled out of the fight on March 9 due to injury and was replaced by former title challenger Glover Teixeira.
A rematch between former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida and former Pride Welterweight and Middleweight Champion as well as former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Dan Henderson was expected to take place at this event. That too bit the dust as of yesterday when the UFC announced that Machida declared the usage of a banned substance during an out-of-competition sample collection last week.
Machida stated that he was unaware that the substance was prohibited both in and out of competition and, in accordance with the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, his disclosure of usage will be taken into consideration by USADA during any potential results management and adjudication process. Therefore, he was removed from the bout and Henderson will be re-booked for another event at a later date.
He later released a statement announcing that he used a supplement which contains 7-Keto-DHEA, an anabolic agent. He also claimed ignorance in the situation and apologized for it, as well as accepting full responsibility for his actions.
All that aside, we still have a solid main event with former Lightweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans vs former number one contender Glover Teixeira. Evans needs a win badly as he is coming off of against Ryan Bader at UFC 192.
He hasn’t won a fight since 2013 against Chael Sonnen. It has been a long while for a win for Suga, if he has any plans on re-starting his a run at the title, he needs a win on Saturday night in Tampa.
Glover saw a 20 fight win streak end back at UFC 172 when he challenged Jon Bones Jones for the Light Heavyweight Title. He then lost again in his next bout against a game Phil Davis. Since then however he has been rolling once again with wins over Ovince St. Preux and Patrick Cummins. A third straight win against a man the stature of Evans, would put him right back in the title picture.
Other fights to watch on this card are
Featherweight Cub Swanson vs. Hacran Dias
Welterweight Court McGee vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
Women’s Bantamweight Bethe Correia vs. Raquel Pennington
And
Bantamweight John Dodson vs. Manvel Gamburyan
Despite the main event and co main event being altered dramatically, it should be a solid card that see’s Glover get one step closer to a rematch with Jones for the title.
You can reach Vince McKee on Twitter at VinceTheAuthor
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