Will Campuzano returns to UFC, meets Sergio Pettis at UFC 167

Sergio Pettis‘ UFC debut no longer is in jeopardy, as he now has a replacement opponent for next week’s UFC 167.

Pettis (9-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will meet Will Campuzano (13-4 MA, 0-2 UFC), who will return to the promotion for the short-notice fight after five fights outside the company. He’ll fill in for Vaughan Lee (13-9-1 MMA, 2-3 UFC), who as MMAjunkie.com was first to report, had to pull out with an injury. UFC officials announced the new booking on Friday.

UFC 167 takes place Nov. 16 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and serves as the promotion’s 20th anniversary show. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and MMAjunkie.com. Pettis vs. Campuzano will be part of the preliminary card.

Campuzano returns to the UFC with a five-fight winning streak that includes three stoppage victories. After being cut from the promotion following back-to-back losses to Nick Pace and Chris Cariaso, the Texan dropped to flyweight and stopped Randy Hinds, Josh Sampo and Jimmy Flick, the latter of which came at Legacy FC 16 and earned him the promotion’s flyweight title. With a win at Legacy FC 19 in April and one in Japan a month ago, Campuzano earned his return to the UFC – where he’ll also return to the bantamweight division.

Pettis, the younger brother of UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis, is unbeaten in his MMA career. Like Anthony, Sergio is a fixture at the Roufusport gym in Milwaukee. In late September, Pettis submitted James Porter in the first round of a North American Fighting Championship event in his home city of Milwaukee. In June, he stopped Dillard Pegg with a first-round TKO to win Resurrection Fighting Alliance’s flyweight title. But for his move to the UFC, he decided to remain at bantamweight, where he was for the Porter fight.

Lee was looking to rebound from a first-round submission loss to Raphael Assuncao at June’s “UFC on FUEL TV 10: Nogueira vs. Werdum 2? event. While Lee has also fallen short against top contenders T.J. Dillashaw and Chris Cariaso, he does boast UFC victories over Motonobu Tezuka and MMA legend Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto.

With the change to the card, the UFC 167 lineup now includes:

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

• Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks – for welterweight title
• Rashad Evans vs. Chael Sonnen
• Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald
• Josh Koscheck vs. Tyron Woodley
• Ali Bagautinov vs. Timothy Elliott

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

• Donald Cerrone vs. Evan Dunham
• Ed Herman vs. Thales Leites
• Brian Ebersole vs. Rick Story
• Edwin Figueroa vs. Erik Perez

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 6:45 p.m. ET)

• Jason High vs. Anthony Lapsley
• Will Campuzano vs. Sergio Pettis
• Cody Donovan vs. Gian Villante

For more on UFC 167, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Will Campuzano)