10 Fights Official, Phan-Grice Targeted for UFC 136

Nam Phan will take on Matt Grice at UFC 136. | Photo: Dave Mandel

The promotion on Thursday announced that Josh Grispi has suffered an injury and will be unable to compete at the event. Instead, Nam Phan will step up to face Matt Grice in his stead.

Headlined by a lightweight title rubber match between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, UFC 136 goes down Oct. 8 from the Toyota Center in Houston. In the co-main event, featherweight champion Jose Aldo will defend his strap against former lightweight title contender Kenny Florian. Additionally, Chael Sonnen will make his return to the cage, as the Team Quest product squares off with Brian Stann in a pivotal middleweight affair. Rounding out the main draw will be a heavyweight confrontation between Mike Russow and Dave Herman, as well as a lightweight tilt pitting the surging Melvin Guillard against Joe Lauzon.

The preliminary card will be highlighted by a trifecta of middleweight contests: Demian Maia vs. Jorge Santiago, Aaron Simpson vs. Nick Catone and Steve Cantwell vs. Mike Massenzio. At heavyweight, the durable Joey Beltran will welcome undefeated prospect Stipe Miocic to the Octagon, and former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis will look to rebound from his recent loss to Clay Guida by besting Jeremy Stephens.

Phan, 28, has lost four of his last five fights. A former cast member on “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 12, the nine-year veteran made his Octagon debut in December, falling in a highly controversial split decision to Leonard Garcia at the season finale. Phan was beaten more decisively in his sophomore Octagon effort, losing by unanimous decision to former WEC featherweight champion Mike Thomas Brown.

Grice is in his second run with the world’s largest promotion. After posting a 1-3 record in his first UFC stint from 2007 to 2009 as a lightweight, Grice won four straight bouts before returning to the Octagon at UFC Live 4 in June as a featherweight. He was defeated in his return by Ricardo Lamas, falling by first-round technical knockout.