John Makdessi out of UFC 162, Rafaello Oliveira now meets Edson Barboza

An injury has knocked John Makdessi (11-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) from July’s UFC 162 card, and stepping in for him will be Rafaello Oliveira (15-5 MMA, 2-4 UFC) to face Edson Barboza (11-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC).

UFC officials announced the new lightweight bout late Thursday.

UFC 162 takes place July 6 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook. Barboza-Oliveira is expected to be part of the preliminary card.

Oliveira will be fighting for the first time in a year. This past July at UFC 148, he snapped a two-fight skid when he outpointed Yoislandy Izquierdo. Prior to that, he had dropped back-to-back fights since returning to the UFC with a submission loss to Gleison Tibau at UFC 130 and a TKO loss to Yves Edwards at UFC on Versus 6. He’s in his second stint with the UFC.

Barboza in January rebounded from his first career loss by submitting Lucas Martins at UFC on FX 7 in his native Brazil. Prior to that, he was stopped at UFC 146 by heavy underdog Jamie Varner with a first-round TKO. That loss snapped a four-fight UFC win streak that had his name being mentioned as a lightweight title contender. Those four wins included a “Knockout of the Year” head kick win over Terry Etim and “Fight of the Night” decisions over Ross Pearson and Anthony Njokuani.

Makdessi was in pursuit of his third straight win. After back-to-back losses to Dennis Hallman and Njokuani, he rebounded with decision wins over Sam Stout and Daron Cruickshank.
The latest UFC 162 card now includes:

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

• Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman
• Frankie Edgar vs. Charles Oliveira
• Roger Gracie vs. Tim Kennedy
• Chan Sung Jung vs. Ricardo Lamas
• Dennis Siver vs. Cub Swanson

PRELIMINARY CARD (FX and Facebook)

• Tim Boetsch vs. Mark Munoz
• Andrew Craig vs. Chris Leben
• Norman Parke vs. Kazuki Tokudome
• Edson Barboza vs. Charles Oliveira
• Shane Del Rosario vs. Dave Herman
• Seth Baczynski vs. Brian Melancon
• David Mitchell vs. Mike Pierce

For the latest on UFC 162, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Edson Barboza)