Veteran fighter and UFC newcomer Gilbert Yvel (36-13-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will step in for an ill Gabriel Gonzaga (11-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) and meet Junior Dos Santos (9-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) on the main card of UFC 108.
MMAjunkie.com today confirmed with a source close to the event that verbal agreements are in place for the Jan. 2 fight, though bout agreements have not been signed.
The bout, first reported by Tatame, takes place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and airs on pay-per-view with the rest of the night's main card.
Yvel, who was scheduled to compete for Affliction Entertainment until the organization ceased operations as part of an agreement with the UFC in late summer, replaces Gonzaga, who was forced off the card due to staph infection.
Yvel, a 50-fight veteran who previously competed for PRIDE, is 8-1 over his past nine bouts; all of the wins came via stoppage, seven via knockout. The lone loss came to Josh Barnett at "Affliction: Day of Reckoning" in January. Yvel took a beating in the fight but lasted late into the third round.
As MMAjunkie.com reported in October, the Nevada State Athletic Commission recently issued Yvel a one-fight license. The NSAC had previously denied the fighter a license in 2007 based on his 2004 attack of a referee in a bout with Atte Backman in Finland. (It's one of a few such instances Yvel is trying to put behind him.)
NSAC executive director Keith Kizer told MMAjunkie.com the one-fight license allows Yvel a chance to prove himself once again.
"If there's any serious issues with the application, [a one-fight license] is an option the commission has as opposed to an outright denial or outright approval," Kizer said. "They can limit the license or condition in it some cases. Here they chose to limit it to one bout. Therefore, if he fights and anything out of the ordinary happens, he's have to come back before the commission as opposed to us having to issue something to him. But we're hopeful that it will go without a hitch."
Dos Santos, meanwhile, has quickly climbed up the ranks of the UFC's heavyweight division with three consecutive stoppage wins in the organization. Just 25 years old, Dos Santos earned TKO wins over Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve before forcing Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic to verbally submit to strikes at UFC 103 in September.
Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/17075/ufc-new ... fc-108.mma