Salas Injured, Lucas Martins in Against Edson Barboza

Lucas Martins

Justin Salas Out, Newcomer Lucas Martins Meets Edson Barboza at UFC on FX 7

Justin Salas has sustained an injury during training and has been forced out of his lightweight fight with Edson Barboza on the preliminary card 'UFC on FX 7' later this month.

Taking his place will be UFC newcomer and fellow Brazilian Lucas Martins. The matchup was reported earlier by MMAjunkie.com. UFC officials have confirmed the matchup.

'UFC on FX 7' is headlined by a fight between middleweight contenders Vitor Belfort and Michael Bisping. The event takes place at Ginasio Estadual Geraldo Jose de Almeida, also known as Ginasio do Ibirapuera, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Martins has already fought twice this past month in Sao Paulo, winning both fights with less than a week between them. He defeated Thiago Sampaio with a rear-naked choke just 43 seconds into the first round on Dec. 8. Not wasting any time, he faced Oberdan Vieira Tenorio on Dec. 13, winning that fight with a head-kick knockout.

The Chute Box trained fighter is 11-0 since kicking off his professional career nearly 16 months ago. He fought an astonishing nine times in 2012, with eight of those wins coming by stoppage. Martins has only gone the distance once in his career.

Meanwhile, Barboza returns to the octagon for the first time since May, where he suffered a first-round TKO upset at the hands of Jamie Varner at UFC 146. The loss was the first of his career, bringing his record to 10-1, 4-1 in the UFC. He has collected four UFC bonus awards.

This past summer, Barboza was nominated to the 2012 ESPY Awards for the fan-voted “Play of the Year” category with his sensational wheel-kick knockout of Terry Etim in the third round of their fight at UFC 142. The Brazilian started off as the number 14 seed in a field of 16 nominees, but was pushed through by fans to the final stage of voting among the top four finalists.

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