Costas Philippou becomes second fighter bitten by injury bug in 2015

First it was Tarrec Saffiedine, and the headliner for the UFC's Broomfield Fight Night went up in smoke. Now, the UFC has been left scrambling for a main card replacement for their January 18th Fight Night card in Boston. New year, same old song and dance. MMAJunkie reports that Costas Philippou has been forced out of his bout against Uriah Hall on the main card of UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs. Siver. Sources close to the situation say that the culprit is a rib injury and the UFC is left looking for a replacement on just over two week's notice.

Surprisingly, the injury withdrawal marks just the second time in twelve announced bouts that Philippou has been forced off of a card, the first being due to a cut leading up to a bout against Jacare at UFC on FX 8. Currently the search for a replacement is underway, but given the short notice, it would most likely either have to be an American fighter (or American-based fighter) already on the UFC roster, or a regional welterweight, willing to fight up a division on short notice. The latter of which has increasingly become the common practice of the UFC of late.

Of course, that short notice fight would be against one of the UFC's pet projects, in Uriah Hall. While Hall has gone an uninspired 2-2, he's still a very dangerous athlete with a lot of promotional push behind him. And while that could mean a lot of pressure for whoever steps up to fight him, it's also a pretty clear win/win situation in that it's a high profile, but not impossible, matchup.

Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow, as we'll be sure to keep you updated as more information becomes available.