The featherweight bout between Chad Mendes and Hacran Dias was expected to be one of the best fights on this weekend’s UFC on FX 6 card in Australia. Instead, Dias was forced to withdraw due to injury, and Mendes will now face off with a guy making his UFC debut – Yaotzin Meza. Australia’s Herald Sun has the news:
“Highly touted Brazilian featherweight Hacran Dias is injured so Yaotzin Meza will step up in his place verses Chad Mendes at UFC on FX, December 15th,” UFC managing director of international development Marshall Zelaznik confirmed to News Limited this morning.
Dias was involved in an incident during training. It his unclear just how long he will be out.
Meza (18-7), who is a training partner to UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, agreed to take the fight on just six days notice.
Meza’s last bout was in April, where he was knocked out in the first round by Andres Quintana. That loss broke a six-fight winning streak. It seems that it would have been easier to just move Mendes to another card against a more competitive opponent, but they decided to go this route instead. Oh well.