John Makdessi Replaces Khabib Nurmagomedov At UFC 187
Last night (Wed., April 29 2015) the once-blockbuster UFC 187 card took yet another hit when top-ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov was forced out of his expected title eliminator against Donald Cerrone.
The news, which came just one day after former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was stripped of his title, understandably elicited a host of top lightweights to replace the oft-injured Nurmagomedov, who also pulled out of his first scheduled meeting with Cerrone at last September’s UFC 178 with the same injury.
Former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson was willing to step in on short notice, as was Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal, who has frequently called for a bout with “Cowboy” only to be denied at each and every turn.
However, the UFC decided to go with the somewhat puzzling decision of signing John Makdessi to face Cerrone on the May 23 card from Las Vegas; a questionable move given that “The bull” only recently got back into the win column at last weekend’s (Sat., April 25, 2015) UFC 186 pay-per-view (PPV) from his native Montreal.
TriStar Gym product had spent the previous 15 months on the shelf regaining his love for fighting after only taking part in a single decision loss to Alan Patrick since September 2013.
Thomson recently tweeted that the UFC had called him to see if he could make weight for the fight, to which he said he certainly could, but never received a response:
They called to asked if I could make weight…. Of course I can! No answer yet.
— Josh Thomson (@THEREALPUNK) April 30, 2015
They’ve decided to go with Makdessi instead. What are your thoughts on this replacement? Will “The Bull” be any match for the “Cowboy” on the quickly depleting UFC 187 main card?
Photo Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
