Luke Rockhold out, C.B. Dollaway meets Tim Boetsch at UFC 166

A month before the UFC’s return to Houston, there has been a change in a key middleweight bout on the card.

A knee injury has forced Luke Rockhold (10-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) out of his fight against Tim Boetsch (16-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC). Rockhold will be replaced in the bout by C.B. Dollaway (13-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC). UFC officials announced the change on Wednesday’s edition of “UFC Tonight” on FOX Sports 1.

UFC 166 takes place Oct. 19 at Toyota Center in Houston. The main card, which features a heavyweight title fight and rubber match between champ Cain Velasquez and former titleholder Junior dos Santos, airs on pay-per-view following preliminary-card bouts on FOX Sports 1 and Facebook.

The Boetsch-Dollaway bout is expected to close out the preliminary card on FOX Sports 1. Rockhold currently is ranked No. 6 and Boetsch is No. 11 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA middleweight rankings. Dollaway is unranked.

Dollaway has won back-to-back fights to erase a two-fight losing skid. He beat Jason Miller by unanimous decision at UFC 146 in May 2012. Then in January, he took a split decision from Daniel Sarafian in a “Fight of the Night” performance at UFC on FX 7 in Brazil. Dollaway was the Season 7 runner-up on “The Ultimate Fighter.”

After a four-fight win streak, Boetsch has lost two straight with a TKO loss to Constantinos Philippou and a recent decision loss to Mark Munoz. Prior to the setbacks, the former college wrestler was on an 8-1 run that included wins over Yushin Okami and Hector Lombard.

Rockhold was looking to go to 2-0 in the UFC. He made his UFC debut after a title run in Strikeforce promotion. However, in May’s UFC on FX 8 headliner, he suffered a spinning-back-kick knockout loss to Vitor Belfort. The defeat snapped a nine-fight win streak. No time table was given for his return.

With the change, the latest UFC 166 card now includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

• Champ Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos – for heavyweight title
• Daniel Cormier vs. Roy Nelson
• Gilbert Melendez vs. Diego Sanchez
• Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Shawn Jordan
• John Dodson vs. Darrell Montague

PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET)

• Tim Boetsch vs. C.B. Dollaway
• Hector Lombard vs. Nate Marquardt
• Jessica Eye vs. Sarah Kaufman
• K.J. Noons vs. George Sotiropoulos

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 6 p.m. ET)

• Adlan Amagov vs. T.J. Waldburger
• Tony Ferguson vs. Mike Rio
• Jeremy Larsen vs. Charles Oliveira
• Kyogi Horiguchi vs. Dustin Pague

For the latest on UFC 166, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: C.B. Dollaway)