TORONTO — Former minor-league hockey enforcer Steve Bosse will make his UFC debut in the co-main event of UFC 186 in Montreal.
Bosse (10-1) will fight Fabio Maldonado, replacing former UFC light-heavyweight champion Quinton (Rampage) Jackson on the April 25 card at the Bell Centre.
The UFC opted to remove Jackson after a New Jersey judge issued an injunction prompted by a legal challenge from rival promoter Bellator, which argued that Jackson was breaking his contract in re-signing with the UFC.
Maldonado (22-7) is ranked 13th among 205-pound contenders by the UFC.
No stranger to scraps, the 33-year-old Bosse was an enforcer in Quebec’s rough-and-tumble Ligue Nord-Americaine de Hockey.
He turned to MMA in 2007 and has wins over former UFC fighters Houston (The Assassin) Alexander, Marvin (The Beastman) Eastman and Wes Sims.
Bosse, who has won his last eight MMA fights, was supposed to make his UFC debut last April but pulled out due to a shoulder injury and said later he was retiring due to a string of injuries.
The UFC said Jackson plans to appeal the court ruling "but with the event drawing nearer, the UFC has had to take action to ensure a suitable replacement was found to face Maldonado."
The April 25 card at the Bell Centre has had one problem after another.
The main event between featherweight champion T.J. Dillashaw and Renan Barao was pulled when Dillashaw was injured in training. And the original co-main event between Canadian welterweight contender Rory MacDonald and Hector Lombard was cancelled after Lombard failed a drug test.
The main event now features a flyweight title bout between champion Demetrious (Mighty Mouse) Johnson and Kyoji Horiguchi.
The Montreal card was originally slated for late last year but was postponed. A Toronto card slated for September 2013 also failed to happen when the show was shifted to Las Vegas.
