Ross Pearson Out, Michael Johnson In Against Melvin Guillard In London

Michael Johnson has done just about everything he can to get a high profile fight at Lightweight; the TUF 12 runner up has beaten Joe Lauzon and Gleison Tibau back-to-back and is hungry for another opponent. Call outs of Nate Diaz, Khabib Nurmagomedov and even the waiter at a restaurant have gone unheard, until now.

Yes, Johnson has an opponent, but maybe not who we expected. News has broken that Ross Pearson has been forced from the UFC Fight Night 37 co-main event against Melvin Guillard, and Johnson will step in as the replacement. The event is scheduled to go down in London, on March 8, and is headlined by a 205lb. tilt between Jimi Manuwa and Alexander Gustafsson.

Pearson suffered a knee injury during training, meaning his much anticipated rematch with Guillard will have to wait. ‘Young Assassin’ had fought to a no contest against Pearson last October, an illegal knee caused a fight ending cut after a thoroughly exciting two minutes.

Guillard had bounced back from two straight losses when he mauled Mac Danzig at UFC on Fox: Johnson vs. Moraga, and will have his hands full with the reinvigorated ‘Menace’. Check out how the UFC Fight Night: London card looks now:

Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jimi Manuwa

Melvin Guillard vs. Michael Johnson

Cyrille Diabate vs. Ilir Latifi

Ian McCall vs. Brad Pickett

Omari Akhmedov vs. Gunnar Nelson

Igor Araujo vs. Danny Mitchell

Brad Scott vs. Claudio Henrique da Silva

Luke Barnatt vs. Mats Nilsson

Louis Gaudinot vs. Phil Harris

Roland Delorme vs. Davey Grant

Photo credit Winslow Townson / USA TODAY Sports