Victory FC 53 loses Mike Rhodes-Ron Stallings title fight, Jeff Curran vs. Raufeon Stots now headlines

Tonight’s Victory FC 53 lineup got a major change to the main card, but will plow forward with six fights.

Middleweight champion Mike Rhodes (10-4) was set to defend his title for the first time against UFC veteran Ron Stallings (14-8) in the main event. But Rhodes had to withdraw from the fight due to illness, the promotion announced, making the new headliner a bantamweight bout between Jeff Curran (36-17-1), a veteran of the UFC, Bellator, Strikeforce, WEC and PRIDE, and Raufeon Stots (6-0).

Mike Rhodes

Victory FC 53 takes place tonight at Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in Waterloo, Iowa. The main card streams on UFC Fight Pass. It was to be a hometown headliner for Rhodes, a frequent training partner of CM Punk at Roufusport Academy in Milwaukee.

Victory FC 53 is the first of the promotion’s “3 Shows, 30 Days” campaign with fight cards in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas in November and December. The three events were set to combine to feature six title fights, but Rhodes’ withdrawal brings that number down to five.

Victory FC 54 takes place Friday, Dec. 9, at Baxter Arena in Omaha, Neb. Victory FC 55 takes place Friday, Dec. 23, at Kansas Expocentre in Topeka, Kan. Both stream live on UFC Fight Pass.

Curran, who turned 39 in September, has lost two straight and four of his past five. He’ll be fighting for the first time since a March 2015 spinning backfist knockout loss to Melvin Blumer at RFA 24. Prior to that, he headlined RFA 9 against Pedro Munhoz, but dropped a split decision in August 2013. A decision win over Joshua Killion is sandwiched in between the Blumer and Munhoz losses and UFC losses to Scott Jorgensen and Johnny Eduardo in 2011 and 2012.

Stots, who like Rhodes trains with Duke Roufus in Milwaukee, has a level mix of wins on his record with two knockouts, two submissions and two decisions. A pro since mid-2015, he went 3-0 that year and is 3-0 so far in 2016 with a submission of Demetrius Wilson at Victory FC 47, a knockout of William Joplin at Victory FC 49 and a submission of Charlie DuBray at Victory FC 52 in July.

With the change, tonight’s Victory FC 53 lineup now includes:

For more on Victory FC 53, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.