Scott Askham injury scraps BAMMA 14 middleweight title fight, Ion Pascu now meets Max Nunes

An injury has knocked a title fight off next month’s BAMMA 14 card in England.

Middleweight champion Scott Askham (11-0) has been forced out of his title defense against Romanian challenger Ion Pascu (7-3). Instead, Pascu now will face Max Nunes (11-1) in a non-title bout on the main card. BAMMA officials recently announced the injury and card change.

BAMMA 14 takes place Dec. 14 at LG Arena in Birmingham, England. The main card will air in the U.S. on AXS TV and features a main event welterweight bout between former UFC and Strikeforce fighter Paul Daley (33-12-2) and Brazilian veteran Romario Manoel da Silva (23-11-1). In addition, lightweight titleholder Mansour Barnaoui (10-2) puts his belt on the line against “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes” finalist Colin Fletcher (9-3).

“I have never had to pull out of a fight in my whole career and have always fought through any slight injury,” Askham stated. “So, as I’m sure you’ll appreciate, I am gutted, especially with this being the first defense of my BAMMA world title. I’d like to apologies to the fans and to my opponent. But rest assured, I’ll be back in 2014 stronger than ever.”

Nunes steps in and drops back to middleweight after suffering his first career loss going after Jason Jones’ BAMMA light heavyweight title in September. Jones stopped him with a second-round arm-triangle choke. Prior to that, Nunes, a London-based fighter from Sweden, was 11-0 with six knockouts and five submissions – and nine of his 11 wins coming in the first round.

“I always intended to fight at middleweight, as I am not a big light heavyweight and previously did not cut any weight,” Nunes stated. “I have always fought at my walk-around weight. Ion is a very good striker, and I have a lot of respect for him and I’m excited to be back fighting at BAMMA. I have a lot to prove. My last fight was my worst performance yet and I want the chance to showcase what I can really do.”

Pascu goes from title fight to sithas won three straight fights, all by knockout or TKO. In Spetember, he stopped Jack Marshman in the first round at BAMMA 13 in his debut with the promotion.

The complete BAMMA 14 fight card includes:

• Paul Daley vs. Romario Manoel Da Silva
• Mansour Barnaoui vs. Colin Fletcher – for lightweight title
• Max Nunes vs. Ion Pascu
• Florent Betorangal vs. Jimmy Wallhead
• Michael Johnson vs. Wayne Murrie – for British welterweight title
• Tom Duquesnoy vs. James Saville
• Leon Edwards vs. Wendle Lewis
• Matt Howard vs. Harry Mcleman
• Andy Craven Zi Shah
• Jefferson George vs. Tim Wilde
• Tim Menzies vs. James Samuda
• Matt Hallam vs. Curtis Widner
• Ed Arthur vs. Ben Rees

For more on BAMMA 14, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Max Nunes)