Erik Perez out, Johnny Bedford now meets Bryan Caraway at UFC 159

An injury has knocked Erik Perez (13-4 MMA, 3-0 UFC) out of Saturday’s bantamweight bout against Johnny Bedford (19-9-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) at UFC 159, and Bryan Caraway (17-6 MMA, 2-1 UFC) will step in to take his place on short notice.

Bedford on Monday revealed the new matchup on his Twitter account, though the UFC has yet to make a formal announcement of the switch. The two fighters were teammates, though in separate weight classes, on Season 14 of “The Ultimate Fighter.”

UFC 159 takes place Saturday at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook. The Bedford-Perez bout was ticketed for the FX prelims, and Bedford-Caraway likely will remain there, as well.

Caraway, who fought at featherweight on “TUF 14? before dropping to bantamweight, will be looking to get back in the win column after his first UFC loss this past month at UFC on FUEL TV 8 in Japan. In that fight, he dropped a close split decision to Takeya Mizugaki after back-to-back submission wins over Dustin Neace and Mitch Gagnon to start his UFC career.

Bedford, a semifinalist on “TUF 14? at bantamweight, has posted back-to-back knockout wins over Louis Gaudinot and Marcos Vinicius since his time on the show. He now owns 15 stoppages in 19 career wins. The former NCAA Division I wrestler is 8-1 over his past nine fights. Both he and Caraway fought on coach Jason “Mayhem” Miller’s team.

Perez, a Mexican fighter now based out of Team Jackson-Winkeljohn, is riding an eight-fight win streak and was looking to make it nine straight. In the UFC, Perez has posted first-round stoppage victories over John Albert, Ken Stone and Byron Bloodworth.

The latest UFC 159 card now includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

• Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen – for light heavyweight title
• Alan Belcher vs. Michael Bisping
• Cheick Kongo vs. Roy Nelson
• Phil Davis vs. Vinny Magalhaes
• Pat Healy vs. Jim Miller

PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 8 p.m. ET)

• Johnny Bedford vs. Bryan Caraway
• Ovince St. Preux vs. Gian Villante
• Sheila Gaff vs. Sara McMann
• Rustam Khabilov vs. Yancy Medeiros

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 6:30 p.m. ET)

• Leonard Garcia vs. Cody McKenzie
• Nick Catone vs. James Head
• Kurt Holobaugh vs. Steven Siler

For more on UFC 159, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Bryan Caraway)