As many of you may, or may not, have heard, over the past couple weeks, Brazil was struck with terrible flooding and hundreds of people have died. As a result of the flooding, Alexandre Ferreira (18-7) has withdrawn from his scheduled bout with Rousimar Palhares (11-3) at UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann. On January 18, Ferreira was dismissed from his home training camp, Chute Boxe. Just shortly after that was announced, Ferreira announced that he had lost family and friends in the massive floods. The combination of these two tragic events led to Alexandre Ferreira stating that he “was in no condition to train or fight.”
Within days of the bout cancellation, it was announced that David Branch (8-1) would step in to face Rousimar Palhares on March 3rd. After losing is UFC debut at UFC 116 by way of a Gerald Harris mega slam, Branch has picked up back to back Unanimous Decision victories. Palhares is coming off a first round TKO loss to Nate Marquardt in September, in which he claimed Marquardt had greased up but later apologized for his accusations. With Palhares being a BJJ Black Belt under Murilo Bustamante and Branch holding his BJJ Black Belt under Renzo Gracie, this fight could definitely turn into a great technical Jiu-Jitsu match.
UFC Live or UFC on Versus 3 takes place at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky and is headlined by a welterweight bout between Diego Sanchez and Martin Kampmann.
