Sodiq Yusuff forced to withdraw from October 10 UFC event, Edson Barboza receives new opponent

Edson Barboza will now face off against Makwan Amirkhani on October 10 after Sodiq Yusuff was forced to withdraw from their scheduled bout.

MMA Junkie has confirmed the initial report from Combate that Yusuff will no longer be able to take on Barboza as he has pulled out due to undisclosed reasons. The man who will be replacing him, Amirkhani, has won three of his last four fights with his latest victory coming against Danny Henry at UFC 251.

This will serve as Barboza’s second outing in the featherweight division after his close loss to Dan Ige via split decision back in May.

Barboza has spoken about his frustration in the judges’ scorecards after the Ige defeat, and at the time, he made it clear that he wanted to be given his win bonus by the UFC.

“It is a crazy feeling, I know I won my last two fights. The people also know I won my last two fights. But, my record says losses, so it is sad,” Barboza said to BJPENN.com. “I was 100 percent confident I beat Ige. I trust my coaches and I asked them did I win? They all said I won the first and second round and the third round was close, maybe he got the third. I was confident until they said split decision and I’m like oh no something is wrong.”

“I didn’t talk to him, I didn’t talk to anybody from the UFC. Backstage, people came to me and said I won the fight. I really want the UFC to show me respect here, I hope the UFC does the right thing and pay me my win bonus,” Barboza added. “That is the most important thing right now. I respect the commission but even Dana said I won. I worked for the UFC for so long, so now is the time they show me respect and love.”

“To be honest, you never know what the judges are seeing. You never know my friend. There is no chance I lost the fight. The most important thing is you can’t have boxing commissions or boxing judges,” Barboza concluded. “This is an MMA fight, they need to know about kicks, grappling, and takedown defense. You need to have people that understand mixed martial arts.”

How do you think Edson Barboza will do in his second featherweight fight?