With his broken arm still not fully healed, former UFC interim champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (33-7-1 MMA, 4-3 UFC) has pulled out of next month's UFC 149 event.

In his place steps Shawn Jordan (13-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who now fights fellow heavyweight Cheick Kongo (17-7-2 MMA, 10-5-1 UFC).

Sherdog first reported the scratch and Jordan's acceptance of the fight earlier today. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) confirmed Nogueira's withdrawal.

UFC 149 takes place July 21 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The main card airs on pay-per-view, and FX and Facebook are expected to carry the prelims.

Jordan vs. Kongo is slated for the main card.

Nogueira was slated to fight for the first time since breaking his arm in a submission loss to Frank Mir at UFC 140. He underwent surgery soon after the December loss.

Jordan, a recent Strikeforce import, made his UFC debut and scored a TKO victory over Oli Thompson at UFC on FX 2 back in March. It marked the former LSU football player and current Team Jackson-Winkeljohn member's fourth win in his past five fights.

Kongo, meanwhile, looks to rebound from a disappointing loss to Mark Hunt at February's UFC 144 event. The surprising defeat snapped a four-fight unbeaten streak for Kongo (which included wins over Paul Buentello, Pat Barry and Matt Mitrione, as well as a draw with Travis Browne). The Hunt loss was the Frenchman's first defeat since a December 2009 loss to Mir.

The latest UFC 149 card includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)

Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao (for interim bantamweight title)
Tim Boetsch vs. Hector Lombard
Shawn Jordan vs. Cheick Kongo*
Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Chris Clements

PRELIMINARY CARD (FX)

Roland Delorme vs. TBA
Mitch Clarke vs. Anton Kuivanen
Court McGee vs. Nick Ring
Bryan Caraway vs. Mitch Gagnon
Antonio Carvalho vs. George Roop
Ryan Jimmo vs. Anthony Perosh
James Head vs. Claude Patrick

...lol

[Brad.Taschuk]

I love when people blame all these guys dropping out on the insurance that's in place now. It's not like they drop out of fights and still get paid. Their medical expenses get covered, but they're not making any money while they're on the sidelines. I guarantee you that 95% of these guys would rather fight hurt and get a paycheque than drop out of fights and starve.

Maybe it's different for Nog because I'm sure he's pretty comfortable financially after all these years, but the average fighter isn't in that position.

[wafb]

Originally Posted by Brad.Taschuk

Maybe it's different for Nog because I'm sure he's pretty comfortable financially after all these years, but the average fighter isn't in that position.

True, Fighters Only mag showed Toquinho's living arrangement and he sleeps in a bunk bed and shares a room with three other guys.

[dfenichel]

Man, I'm generally a UFC apologist, but this card is putrid. Not only has every main card fight changed or been altered, but the undercard is TERRIBLE. It's filled with fights that just aren't compelling. This is what happens when you run so many shows though. Better hope some of these guys deliver.

[Negative2]

Cards like this usually do deliver in terms of action but sometimes they can be horrible in every aspect. An awesome one that comes to mind is UFC 80 or 81 (BJ vs Stevenson). A shitty one I thought was Bisping vs Rashad.

[e-thug]

Originally Posted by Negative2

Cards like this usually do deliver in terms of action but sometimes they can be horrible in every aspect. An awesome one that comes to mind is UFC 80 or 81 (BJ vs Stevenson). A shitty one I thought was Bisping vs Rashad.

UFC 80 was actually awesome, I think every fight got shown on the PPV that night.

78 was indeed meh the card had Alves beast mode, Lytle, T.Silva/Alexander chokeslam fun and Karo in action....looked like it was gonna deliver forsure but never really did.

Funny thing is I looked back at the 78 buyrate and it was 400k, thats pretty solid for something that wasn't considered ME worthy.....was 5 years ago though when there wasn't an MMA event on every week.

[plazzman]

Why is the UFC insurance coverage even being talked about here (and so much in general). I see zero rational correlation between fighters getting injured and being covered for injury. Unless there's some wicked perk that the policy covers lost wages, which is extremely unlikely.

But I must say all these injuries are making me give zero fucks about MMA right now.

[Mervin]

It's a combination of several factors IMO.

With the new insurance, fighters have less pressure to pull out of fights. And now with the UFC's near monopoly, you can't afford to lose and get released anymore. Long gone is the time when fighters asked to be released from their UFC contracts. Who would do that nowadays lol?

[Damone]

It's been a cursed year for MMA. I'm not really buying into the health insurance being the problem thingy. I just think that MMA goes through weird years. 2007 was weird, and this year is weird.

So far, a horrid year, and I often just re-watch my old fav's fights.

[bail3yz]

Originally Posted by dfenichel

Man, I'm generally a UFC apologist, but this card is putrid. Not only has every main card fight changed or been altered, but the undercard is TERRIBLE. It's filled with fights that just aren't compelling. This is what happens when you run so many shows though. Better hope some of these guys deliver.

This is hilarious coming from you, because this card is still way better than UFC 147, which you claim to like somehow.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by Damone

It's been a cursed year for MMA. I'm not really buying into the health insurance being the problem thingy. I just think that MMA goes through weird years. 2007 was weird, and this year is weird.

So far, a horrid year, and I often just re-watch my old fav's fights.

Agee with this post. I'm watching way more old fights than new ones right now, too.