As SMMAF rules out Taylor Lapilus, Charles Rosa joins Saturday's UFC Fight Night 53 card

from MMA Junkie on Sep 29, 2014
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Veteran UFC featherweight Dennis Siver has a new opponent for Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 53 card.

The Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation ruled Taylor Lapilus (8-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) an unsuitable opponent for Siver (21-9 MMA, 10-6 UFC), so undefeated UFC newcomer Charles Rosa (9-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has stepped in as a replacement, officials today announced.

UFC Fight Night 53 takes place at Ericsson Globe in Stockholm. The entire event, including the Siver vs. Rosa prelim, streams on UFC Fight Pass.

Lapilus, himself a replacement for Robert Whiteford, is a 22-year-old Frenchman who’s fought primarily in his home country (which uses a ruleset that doesn’t allow ground-and-pound). He’s currently on a three-fight winning streak, though it came against competition that is 3-7-1 overall. Most recently, he picked up May win over Cyril Ericher (1-1).

According to the UFC, Lapilus will remain on the UFC roster and will be booked for a future event.

Rosa, meanwhile, turned pro two years ago and is 9-0 with nine stoppages (three knockouts and six submissions) since then. Recently fighting for the CES MMA promotion, he’s picked up wins over Keith Richardson (10-6), Brylan Van Artsdalen (8-11) and Jake Constant (5-6) in 2014. MMAjunkie’s Ben Fowlkes recently profiled the American Top Team fighter:

Siver, meanwhile, is slated to return after a nine-month suspension after testing positive for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) after a UFC 168 win over Manny Gamburyan (which was later overturned and ruled a no-contest). Prior to that performance, he suffered a TKO loss to Cub Swanson. But the former top-15 145-pounder was on a 6-1 run before the setbacks.

The UFC Fight Night 53 card now includes:

MAIN CARD (3 p.m. ET, UFC Fight Pass)