Amir Sadollah injured, Nah-Shon Burrell now meets Stephen Thompson at UFC 160

Amir Sadollah (6-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) has been forced out of his welterweight fight against Stephen Thompson (6-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) at UFC 160 next month, and a Strikeforce vet will instead get his second octagon test.

Nah-Shon Burrell (9-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) will step in for Sadollah to meet Thompson on the card. UFC officials on Wednesday announced the change.

UFC 160 takes place May 25 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main card, including a Cain Velasquez-Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva heavyweight title fight, will air on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

Burrell debuted in the UFC in February, picking up a unanimous decision win over Yuri Villefort with scores of 30-27 and a pair of 29-28s. Prior to coming to the UFC in the Strikeforce merger, Burrell had a six-fight win streak snapped by Chris Spang. But he got back in the win column at UFC 157 against Villefort.

Thompson has not fought since a loss nearly a year ago to Matt Brown at UFC 145 in Atlanta. After winning his UFC debut in stunning “Knockout of the Night” fashion with a head-kick stoppage of Dan Stittgen at UFC 143, “Wonderboy” became an overnight sensation. But the karate expert was quickly brought back down to earth by Brown, who dominated him en route to a unanimous decision with scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-27. Thompson was expected to make his return at UFC 154 this past November, but a knee injury forced him out of a bout with Besam Yousef.

Sadollah was hoping to get out of a bit of a slump. In September, he dropped a unanimous decision to Dan Hardy in front of Hardy’s home crowd at UFC on FUEL TV 5 in Nottingham, England. This past May, he beat Jorge Lopez by split decision to erase a loss to Duane Ludwig at UFC on Versus 5 in Milwaukee. He was trying to avoid the first losing skid of his career, but with the undisclosed injury, that will be put on hold.

The latest UFC 160 card now includes:

• Champ Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva – for heavyweight title
• Junior dos Santos vs. Mark Hunt
• James Te Huna vs. Glover Teixeira
• T.J. Grant vs. Gray Maynard
• Donald Cerrone vs. KJ Noons
• Gunnar Nelson vs. Mike Pyle
• Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Abel Trujillo
• Nah-Shon Burrell vs. Stephen Thompson
• Colton Smith vs. Robert Whittaker
• Estevan Payan vs. Jeremy Stephens
• Brian Bowles vs. George Roop
• Dennis Bermudez vs. Max Holloway

For the latest on UFC 160, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Na-Shon Burrell)