Erick Silva Out, Tyron Woodley to Fight Jay Hieron at UFC 156

Tyron Woodley

 Woodley in for Silva at UFC 156

Looks like the injury epidemic that plagued 2012 is carrying over to 2013 as an undisclosed injury has forced welterweight Erick Silva to pull out of his UFC 156 fight with Jay Hieron.

Not to worry, as Strikeforce veteran Tyron Woodley has gladly taken Silva's place in an attempt to rebound from his only MMA loss to Nate Marquardt last July.

The former Division 1 All-American and Hieron are both coming off losses to highly ranked welterweights.

Jay Hieron lost a rather close unanimous decision to Jake Ellenberger, a fight in which Hieron actually did a pretty decent job defending Jake's usually aggressive wrestling-based attacks.

Woodley fought his way to the finals of a tournament to determine the vacant Strikeforce weltwerweight belt (formerly held by Nick Diaz) but, despite a great effort to hold on,  fell victim to the brutal elbows, knees and fists of Nate "The Great."

It will be the classic battle of striking versus wrestling, and it will be interesting to see how well each fighter has learned to counter the style that was exposed as their weakness in their latest losses.

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