Etim and Penner injured, changes made to UFC on Fox 4 and UFC on FUEL TV 4

Terry Etim (15-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) is one of the latest UFC injury casualties and has had to bow out of his main-card bout against Joe Lauzon (21-7 MMA, 8-2 UFC) at UFC on FOX 4, according to FUEL TV’s “UFC Tonight”. Lauzon is expected to remain on the card to face a new opponent. Etim last fought in January at UFC 142, where he was knockouted by Edson Barboza, by way of a head-kick. Ironically, Lauzon is coming in off a loss via a similar knockout at the hands (or feet) of Anthony Pettis.

UFC on FOX 4 takes place August 4 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The main card will be televised on FOX with a main event light heavyweight bout between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Brandon Vera. Rua was originally scheduled for UFC 149, but was moved to the Fox card when Thiago Silva dropped. The original headliner was to be Brian Stann against former Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard.

A light heavyweight bout between Nick Penner (11-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) and Tom DeBlass (7-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) has been scratched from the lineup at UFC on FUEL TV 4.

An injury to Nick Penner (11-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) forced him off the lineup at UFC on FUEL TV 4 against Tom DeBlass (7-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC).
While DeBlass was hoping for a new match according to his Twitter account, yesterday:

So my opponent Nick Penner pulled out. Waiting to hear my new opponent. #2 weeks out still grinding.

— Tom DeBlass (@TomDeBlass) June 26, 2012

UFC officials have decided to whittle the card down to 11 fights instead of 12.

UFC on FUEL TV 4 takes place July 11 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, with a main event between middleweights Mark Munoz (12-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) and Chris Weidman (8-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC). The main card will air on FUEL TV with prelims streaming live on Facebook.