Glover Teixeira in for injured 'Shogun' Rua vs. Rashad Evans at UFC on FOX 19 in Tampa

The UFC on FOX 19 co-main event pairing a couple of ex-light heavyweight champions against each other has fallen apart.

Former 205-pound titleholder Mauricio Rua (23-10 MMA, 7-8 UFC) is out of the event’s co-feature against fellow ex-champ Rashad Evans (19-4-1 MMA, 14-4-1 UFC) next month. Stepping in for Rua will be another Brazilian, Glover Teixeira (24-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC).

UFC officials today announced the change. UFC on FOX 19 takes place April 16 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. The main card will air on FOX following prelims expected for FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Evans, the No. 9 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light-heavyweight rankings, and No. 13 Rua were supposed to meet four years ago at UFC 128, but a knee injury forced Evans to withdraw from the matchup. That provided the catalyst for one of MMA’s great rivalries as Evans’ then-teammate, Jon Jones, accepted the bout and went on to dominate Rua to capture the belt.

Evans and Jones met one year later at UFC 145. Jones outpointed Evans to retain the title. Rua, meanwhile, struggled to build traction, hopscotching between wins and losses.

“Shogun” Rua was hoping to build on a recent win in a rematch against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira that co-headlined this past August’s UFC 190 event. The ex-champ has lost five of his past nine bouts since losing his title to Jon Jones. The former PRIDE tourney champ has brushed off calls for retirement and recently underwent shoulder surgery.

Evans, meanwhile, saw a much-anticipated comeback go south after a long injury layoff. A decision loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 192 sent him back to the drawing board following nearly two years on the sidelines due to multiple knee injuries.

Evans, who lost the title to Lyoto Machida in 2009 at UFC 98, called for a bout with Rua after the Brazilian recovered from surgery, and it came to fruition. But now it obviously is put on hold – perhaps for good.

Teixeira won his first five UFC bouts as part of a remarkable 20-fight winning streak. He got a shot at Jones at UFC 172, but lost a unanimous decision in his attempt to win the title. His next bout, against Phil Davis at UFC 179, was another decision setback for the first skid of his career. But this past August, he picked up a fight-night bonus for his submission over Ovince Saint Preux in Nashville, and he followed that up in November with a TKO win over Patrick Cummins in his native Brazil.

With the change, the latest UFC on FOX 19 card now includes:

• Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
• Rashad Evans vs. Glover Teixeira
• Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida
• Rose Namajunas vs. Tecia Torres
• Michael Chiesa vs. Beneil Dariush
• Bethe Correia vs. Raquel Pennington
• Hacran Dias vs. Cub Swanson
• Court McGee vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
• Cezar Ferreira vs. Caio Magalhaes
• Drew Dober vs. Islam Makhachev
• John Dodson vs. Manny Gamburyan

For more on UFC on FOX 19, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.