Gunnar Nelson now fights Zak Cummings at UFC Fight Night 46 in Dublin

Zak Cummings (17-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) has stepped in as a replacement for Ryan LaFlare (11-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) and now meets fellow welterweight Gunnar Nelson (12-0-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 46 in July.

UFC officials today announced the switch, though a reason wasn’t given for LaFlare’s removal from the card.

UFC Fight Night 46 takes place July 19 at The O2 in Dublin. The entire event streams on UFC Fight Pass. Nelson vs. LaFlare was slated for the co-headlining spot. Nelson vs. Cummings is likely to maintain the spot.

Cummings initially was slated to fight vet Kenny Robertson (13-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) on July 16 at UFC Fight Night 45 on Atlantic City, N.J. A replacement hasn’t been named.

Cummings recently earned a unanimous decision win over Yan Cabral at UFC Fight Night 40. That moved him to 2-0 in the UFC, which included a submission win over Ben Alloway at UFC Fight Night 27 this past August. The 29-year-old Strikeforce and Bellator vet now won four straight fights and seven of his past eight.

Nelson, meanwhile, kept his undefeated record intact when he stopped Omari Akhmedov with a first-round guillotine choke at UFC Fight Night 37 earlier this year. The victory earned him a “Performance of the Night” bonus and got him back on the stoppage track after needing to go to the judges to beat Jorge Santiago in February 2013. Prior to that unanimous decision win, all of his previous victories had come via stoppage.

The latest UFC Fight Night 46 card now includes:

• Conor McGregor vs. Cole Miller
• Zak Cummings vs. Gunnar Nelson
• Ian McCall vs. Brad Pickett
• Ilir Latifi vs. Tom Lawlor
• Cody Donovan vs. Nikita Krylov
• Phil Harris vs. Neil Seery
• Trevor Smith vs. Tor Troeng

For more on UFC Fight Night 45 and UFC Fight Night 46, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.