After re-breaking the same arm he broke during UFC 290, ninth-ranked lightweight Dan Hooker was forced to withdraw from his fight at UFC Austin and will be replaced by Jalin Turner, Dana White announced Thursday.
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The 12th-ranked Turner stepped in to face No. 13 Bobby Green in a three-round fight on Dec. 2 at Moody Center.
Green is coming off consecutive victories, beating Tony Ferguson by submission in July and Grant Dawson via a 33-second knockout in October.
Turner was actually Hooker’s opponent when he broke his arm and has lost consecutive split decisions to Hooker and Mateusz Gamrot.
White also announced No. 7 bantamweight Song Yadong will fight No. 14 Chris Gutierrez on Dec. 9 at the Apex as the main event at UFC Vegas 83.
Guitierrez has won nine of his last 10 fights and is coming off a win by unanimous decision over Alateng Heili on Oct. 14.
Yadong, meanwhile, has won four of his last five after beating Ricky Simon by a fifth-round knockout in April.
To add to his Thanksgiving announcements, White declared featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will defend his belt at UFC 298 on Feb. 17 against No. 5 Ilia Topuria in Anaheim, Calif.
Volkanovski vs. Topuria was originally scheduled for UFC 297 in Toronto but was pushed back after Volkanovski stepped in to fight UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 in October.
Finally, the main event at a UFC Fight Night on Feb. 10 will be unranked middleweight Joe Pyfer against No. 10 Jack Hermansson at the Apex in Las Vegas.
Pyfer has won four straight fights — all by finish — and is considered a rising star in the division.
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