Rodriguez, a replacement for O’Brien
In the opening round of the Dream light heavyweight grand prix, former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez will not face Gegard Mousasi, at Dream 15 on Saturday at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
As a replacement for Jake O’Brien, Rodriguez agreed to fill in as a replacement, but Mousasi’s camp declined. O’Brien was struggling to cut excess weight and meet the 205-pound limit at the time the decision was made, although Mousasi has instead agreed to face O’Brien.
“Matt Hume had asked me if I could make the cut, and I told him that I could maybe get down, Then they asked Gegard’s camp [about the fight], and they said that they would prefer to take Jake.” said Rodriguez.
As O’Brien clocked in at 226 pounds, he never made the weight limit, according to the sources. But it seems that the light heavyweight tournament bout against Mousasi will go forward. For the match, Dream has not yet released O’Brien’s official weight.
Rodriguez said, “It’s definitely going to happen”.
With Dream’s attempts to arrange a last-minute bout for Rodriguez, the latter expressed satisfaction. At the event, Rodriguez had originally agreed to meet Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.
Rodriguez said, “Like I said, they’ve been really great with me. “[Being paid in full is] what they’ve promised me, and they’ve taken care of me. I’m content. But if I would have had an opportunity to fight either Overeem or Gegard, I would have been very happy. I’m sitting here very happy and ready to go to work. I think the opportunity will come in the future.”
Check out the UFC betting blog for any new information regarding this bout.