Anthony Johnson forced out of fight with Nate Marquardt, Rick Story fills in as replacement
by Tim Groves on June 02, 2011

Anthony Johnson has withdrawn from his main event fight with Nate Marquardt at UFC on Versus 4 and will be replaced by Rick Story, according to MMAJunkie.com.

A reason for the withdraw was not immediately known.

Rick Story, who just defeated Thiago Alves at UFC 130 will now take a huge step up in relevance. Story is 13-3 during his professional career, including 6-1 inside the UFC. The surging welterweight has won six straight since he was defeated by fellow prospect John Hathaway in his UFC debut. An impressive win over Marquardt could push Story to the front of the line in a suddenly very thin welterweight division. With champion George St. Pierre's continued dominance, any emerging contender will be fast tracked to the title. 

He will face Nate Marquardt, who is dropping down to 170 pounds for the first time in his career. Marquardt, a former middleweight, was urged into dropping down due to training partner St. Pierre. St. Pierre realized that both he and Marquardt walk around at roughly the same weight, and he began talking to Marquardt about fighting at 170. Marquardt is coming off of a dominant victory over Dan Miller at UFC 128. It pushed him to 10-4 for his UFC career.

UFC on Versus 4 is set to take place on June 26 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

 |  (28) Comments Lay'n'PrayNINJA: Nate vs. Story.....I know which fight to go take a smoke break during.... :-) illegalpoke: Holy crap. Giada Esposito: Hmm... this is a bummer. I was looking forward to Johnson vs. Marquardt. Cryptic_Soldier: This is gonna be a good one if storry isnt a insert a c-word here about it and actually comes to fight not clinch. Keep waiting for ol Nate to shock me like he did back when he fought Kampmann, Maia, and wilson Gouveia; THOSE WERE SOME SICK PREFORMANCES and I wanna see more like em. Nate fights only seem boring when he's fighting lay and pray guys like okami and sonnen Marker28: Interesting match-up. EverlastingSpringtime: thats the end of the Story.... :D had to be said ;) flyangler: I just haven't been feeling it from Nate since losing to Sonnen. I have to think, though, that this should be a win for him. I really was hoping to see him and Rumble fight.....darn! snuff: I believed he would have lost to palhares if palhares didn't point to nate's legs crying grease. On another note, I hope he blasts Story out of relevancy. His fight with Alves was shameful. SicJits: And this is his first cut to 170, will have to see if that effects him negatively in any way GO HARD: Kampmann is out vs Howard. so its matt brown vs john howard.
HOW WILL THE THIAGO ALVES VS. MARTIN KAMPMANN FIGHT END AT UFC ON FX 2?
Alves def. Kampmann via TKO/KO
Alves def. Kampmann via submission
Alves def. Kampmann via decision
Kampmann def. Alves via TKO/KO
Kampmann def. Alves via submission
Kampmann def. Alves via decision
TAKE ANOTHER POLL!