John Dodson offers to replace Caraway, face Jimmie Rivera next week

John Dodson is down for a short-notice fight. The former TUF winner and current contender at 135 pounds apparently became interested when Bryan Caraway was forced to pull out of an upcoming bout with Jimmie Rivera due to an injury. This led Dodson to take to social media to ask for the fight against Rivera next week in Phoenix:

Dodson (18-8, 7-3 UFC) has had two title shots at flyweight, but moved up to bantamweight after being unable to wrest the belt away from Demetrious Johnson. He’s 1-1 in the division so far, with a quick win over Manny Gamburyan and a close split-decision loss to John Lineker. The latter was a main-event bout in Portland in October.

Rivera (20-1, 4-0 UFC) is coming off a huge win over Urijah Faber in September. The bout with Caraway was seen to maybe be a prelude to a title shot for the winner, but the UFC 207 results may have put a damper on that.

Nonetheless, a bout between Rivera (currently ranked at number six) and Dodson (currently at number nine) would be one of the more important bouts on the card if it comes together.

UFC Fight Night 103 goes down in the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix on January 15th. Yair Rodriguez will meet B.J. Penn in the headliner.