UFC officials announced today that Justin Edwards (8-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) has been forced out of his scheduled UFC on FUEL TV 7 bout with Gunnar Nelson (10-0-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) due to an undisclosed injury. Replacing Edwards will be Jorge Santiago (25-10 MMA, 1-4 UFC), who returns to the UFC after going 2-0 with the Titan FC promotion.
Nelson made his octagon debut in September of 2012 at the “UFC on FUEL TV 5: Struve vs. Miocic” event. The Icelandic native needed less than a round to submit “TUF” veteran DaMarques Johnson and earn his first UFC win. The victory marked Gunnar’s 10th stoppage in 10 career wins.
Nelson now meets Santiago, who returns for a third stint with the UFC promotion. Santiago went 1-2 during his first UFC stint back in 2006, he then went on an 11-1 run outside the organization where he obtained the Sengoku middleweight championship. When Santiago returned to the UFC in 2011, he suffered back-to-back losses to Brian Stann and Demian Maia, which lead to his release. Jorge has since fought twice in Titan FC, where he has gone 2-0 with both victories coming in the first round.
UFC on FUEL TV 7 takes place February 16th at Wembley Arena in London, England. The main card airs on FUEL TV following the prelims on Facebook.
The UFC on FUEL TV 7 event now includes the following bouts:
MAIN CARD (FUEL TV, 3 p.m. ET)
- Renan Barao vs. Michael McDonald – Interim bantamweight title fight
- Dustin Poirier vs. Cub Swanson
- Cyrille Diabate vs. Jimi Manuwa
- Gunnar Nelson vs. Jorge Santiago
- Ryan Jimmo vs. James Te Huna
- Che Mills vs. Matthew Riddle
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, noon ET)
- Terry Etim vs. Renee Forte
- Danny Castillo vs. Paul Sass
- Josh Grispi vs. Andy Ogle
- Stanislav Nedkov vs. Tom Watson
- Vaughan Lee vs. Motonobu Tezuka
- Ulysses Gomez vs. Phil Harris