UFC 142 is the first card of 2012 that is forced to reorganize due to injuries.
Paulo Thiago was last seen fighting in Rio this summer at UFC 134. He received one of the best receptions that night from the Rio crowd. In fact, outside of Big Nog and Anderson Silva, Thiago was the most heavily supported fighter that night. The BOPE member was scheduled to face Mike Pyle but was forced off with an injury. No replacement has been found.
Stanislav Nedkov made his UFC debut at UFC 134 against Luis Cane. Nedkov hit Cane so hard he tried to do a flying kick into the fence. Stanislav was removed from the card with a visa issue. He was expected to face Fabio Maldonado. No replacement has been found.
TATAME was the first to break the news with this tweet:
The bad news didn’t end there. MMA Fighting is reporting that Siyar Bahadurzada and Rob Broughton were also removed from the card due to injury. Bahadurzada was making his UFC debut against top welterweight prospect Erik Silva. No replacement has been found yet. Rob Broughton’s injury allows Gabriel Gonzaga to return and face Edinaldo Oliveira, who is making his UFC debut.