Just over a month ahead of ‘UFC Fight Night: Belfast’ on November 19th, the card has now been left without a main event as the Dong Hyun Kim vs. Gunnar Nelson matchup, which was expected to headline the event, has now been pulled from the card for unknown reasons.
At the present time, TalkMMA is reporting that Gunnar Nelson injured his foot in training, and ultimately was forced to withdraw from the fight as a result of the injury:
Injury to Gunnar Nelson is said to be his foot. Hurt it about a month ago. Tried to work through it and finally just threw in the towel.
— #Dizz © (@TalkMMA) October 21, 2016
Ariel Helwani first broke the news of the fight being scrapped from the event, which also revealed that the UFC was looking to book Gegard Mousasi vs. Uriah Hall II for the new main event:
The Nelson-Kim Belfast main event is off. Mousasi-Hall 2 is in the works as the new main, per sources. Story coming to @MMAFighting shortly.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 21, 2016
Hall knocked out Mousasi back in 2015, where he picked up a highlight reel TKO win in the 2nd round of their ‘UFC Fight Night: Saitama’ scrap. The win was arguably the biggest of Hall’s career as he landed a jumping back kick that hit Mousasi, before he then landed a flying knee and several punches to finish the MMA veteran.
Since the loss, Mousasi has been on a tear of the UFC’s middleweight division, going 3-0 over the course of 2016 as he picked up a unanimous decision win over Thales Leites, a KO win over Thiago Santos, and most recently a TKO win over Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of UFC 204 earlier this month.
With the win over Belfort, there was much speculation as to who Mousasi would face next given that Luke Rockhold & Jacare Souza are currently slated to fight, as well as Chris Weidman & Yoel Romero.
Now, he could very well find himself in a position to avenge his 2015 loss to Uriah Hall, who has gone on a 2-fight losing streak since defeating Mousasi. Most recently, Hall was TKOd by Derek Brunson in the first round of their ‘UFC Fight Night: Hidaldo’ scrap last month.