Josh Grispi (14-3) has been forced to withdraw from his featherweight bout with Matt Grice (14-4) which was scheduled to take place at UFC 136 on Oct. 8 in Houston, Texas.
Filling in for Grispi will be BJJ black belt and TUF 12 veteran Nam Phan (16-9). UFC President Dana White confirmed Phan as Grispi’s replacement on Friday, stating verbal agreements were in place.
Still only 28-years-old, Phan has been fighting professionally since 2001. The California native made his UFC debut in Dec. 2010 with a “Fight of the Night” split decision loss to Leonard Garcia.
Phan’s second UFC bout took place against Mike Brown at UFC 133 last weekend. Unfortunately for Phan, he came up short again, losing a unanimous decision.
The 30-year-old Grice is undefeated outside the UFC Octagon. However, he is 1-4 inside the UFC and is coming off a first round TKO loss to Ricardo Lamas at UFC Live 4 in June.
Headlined with two title fights, UFC 136 is lining up to be one of the promotion’s most anticipated cards of the year. To see the full UFC 136 fight card as it currently stands refer to ProMMAnow.com’s Upcoming Events page.
Nam Phan sucks …