Payan out, Charles Oliveira in to face Jeremy Larsen at UFC 166

Late Tuesday evening, UFC officials announced that an injury had forced Estevan Payan (14-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) out of his scheduled UFC 166 bout with Charles Oliveira (16-4 MMA, 4-4 UFC).

Meanwhile, fellow UFC featherweight Jeremy Larsen (8-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC) was supposed to take on Matt Grice at UFC 166, but that bout fell through after Grice was hospitalized from being seriously injured in a car accident.

With that, Oliveira and Larsen will now fight each other on the preliminary card of UFC 166 on October 19.

Oliveira will be looking to bounce back in to the win column when he takes on Larsen, as “Do Bronx” is coming off back-to-back losses. Charles latest effort came at UFC 162 in Las Vegas, where he faced former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar in the evenings co-main event. Charles would lose the fight via unanimous decision, but would earn the evenings “Fight of the night” bonus for his efforts. Prior to that, Oliveira suffered a KO loss to perennial contender Cub Swanson at UFC 152 in Toronto.

Meanwhile, Larsen may be in need of a victory just to keep his job with the promotion. The “TUF 15” veteran, who trains at Arizona Combat Sports with Payan, has lost both of his official fights in the UFC. He was stopped by Joe Proctor in the first-round of their fight at the “TUF 15 Finale” and was then KO’d by Lucas Martins at May’s UFC on FX 8 event.

UFC 166 takes place October 19 live from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The event is headlined by a rubber match between heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez and former champ Junior dos Santos.