Word broke earlier this evening that Edson Barboza (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) will have a new opponent on January 19th. Justin Salas (10-4 MMA, 1-1 UFC), who was Barboza’s original opponent, has suffered an injury during training and will now be sidelined for the UFC on FX 7: Belfort vs. Bisping event at the end of the month. Therefore, Barboza will be squaring off with the undefeated Lucas Martins (11-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) instead. UFC officials confirmed the change today.

Although this is a replacement fight it very well may be a step up in competition for Barboza. Lucas Martins is coming off of a 9-0 year in which he finished 8 of those 9 fights. Of his 11 professional fights, only 1 has ever gone the distance. That may spell “scary” for Mr. Barboza.

Barboza is coming off of the first loss of his career; a first-round TKO upset to Jamie Varner back at UFC 146 last May. The loss snapped his four-fight winning streak but he’ll be looking to right the ship with a huge win over a dangerous new opponent in Martins. This fight, in my opinion, could easily win fight of the night honors. It will air as a part of the prelims on FUEL TV and Facebook.

UFC on FX 7 is being headlined by a middleweight scrap that many are deeming a #1 contender bout between Vitor Belfort and Michael Bisping. This card should be an explosive display of MMA and the Barboza vs. Martins fight should be a “must watch.”
Here is what UFC on FX 7 now looks like:

MAIN CARD (FX)
• Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping
• C.B. Dollaway vs. Daniel Sarafian
• Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ben Rothwell
• Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Thiago Tavares
PRELIMINARY CARD (FUEL TV, Facebook)
• Godofredo Castro vs. Milton Vieira
• Andrew Craig vs. Ronny Markes
• Nik Lentz vs. Diego Nunes
• Edson Barboza vs. Justin Salas
• Yuri Alcantara vs. George Roop
• Roger Hollett vs. Wagner Prado
• Francisco Trinaldo vs. C.J. Keith

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