Rani Yahya | Jeff Sherwood/Sherdog.com
News of Brown stepping in for the injured Chan Sung Jung first broke last week, and the switch was confirmed on Tuesday by the UFC. The bout completes the 11-fight card, which is the UFC’s second event benefiting the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a not-for-profit organization which supports severely wounded U.S. military personnel and their families.
Brown re-enters the Octagon just three weeks after dropping a razor-thin split decision to Nova União prospect Diego Nunes at UFC 125. The 35-year-old American Top Team representative has struggled since losing his WEC title to Nunes’ teammate, Jose Aldo, in November 2009. Since then, Brown alternated wins and losses, submitting Anthony Morrison and knocking out Cole Province, while losing to Nunes and being knocked out by Manny Gamburyan.
After beginning his WEC career with first-round submissions of Yoshiro Maeda, Eddie Wineland and John Hosman, Yahya was defeated in his final two bouts for the promotion. In December 2009, he was punched out by Team Alpha Male standout Joseph Benavidez in 95 seconds. In his most recent outing, Yahya lost a unanimous decision to onetime title contender Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 48. The 26-year-old holds a career mark of 15-6, with 14 of those wins coming by way of submission.
“Fight for the Troops 2” will be headlined by a lightweight showdown between once-beaten prospect Evan Dunham and resurgent “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 2 participant Melvin Guillard. Bolstering the televised portion of the card are a pair of heavyweight contests -- featuring Matt Mitrione against Tim Hague and Patrick Barry versus Joey Beltran -- as well as a featherweight attraction pitting Mark Hominick against George Roop, and a lightweight bout between Cole Miller and Matt Wiman.
Evan
Dunham vs. Melvin
Guillard
Matt
Mitrione vs. Tim Hague
Mark
Hominick vs. George
Roop
Patrick
Barry vs. Joey
Beltran
Cole
Miller vs. Matt
Wiman
Cody
McKenzie vs. Yves
Edwards
DaMarques
Johnson vs. Michael
Guymon
Mike Thomas
Brown vs. Rani
Yahya
Waylon
Lowe vs. Willamy
Freire
Charlie
Brenneman vs. Amilcar
Alves
Will
Campuzano vs. Chris
Cariaso