Alessio pulled from Sarnia event

Canadian John (The Natural) Alessio has been scratched from an event Saturday in Sarnia, Ont., after his scheduled opponent was hurt and no replacement was approved.

Ryan Healy, the twin brother of Strikeforce fight Pat Healy, tore his ACL in training and had to withdraw. Alessio, who is from Duncan, B.C., posted on his Facebook account that the Ontario Athletic Commission would not approve an opponent.

Alessio, who was set to fight at lightweight, was coming off a win on Nov. 4 over Luiz Firmino at a Superior Cage Combat show in Las Vegas, where the Canadian veteran now lives and trains. It was his debut at 155 pounds after spending most of his career at welterweight.

This is the third time this year that one of his scheduled opponents has been forced to pull out of a fight late. Fortunately for him in the other two cases, including his last fight, a replacement was found.

The Xtreme Couture fighter, who has fought in other Canadian promotions since he last fought in the WEC in 2008, won a Tachi Palace Fighting welterweight title last December. He was also entered into an Ultimate Glory welterweight tournament, but fell by TKO to Siyar Bahadurzada in his semi-final bout in Belgium in March.

The event, which will take place at the RBC Centre, will now be headlined by local fighter John Fraser taking on Travis Reddinger.

In the co-main event, Dresden, Ont.’s Chris (The Menace) Clements, who fights out of Adrenaline Training Centre in London, Ont., takes on former UFC veteran Rich Clementi.

Clements (9-4) also lost his original opponent less than two weeks ago when Forrest Petz pulled out with injury. The promotion found Clementi (42-20-1) as a replacement, but the commission denied the matchup at first on account of the disparity in experience for the two fighters.

Clements said he had to get a letter from teammate Mark Hominick attesting to his skill and suitability to take the fight. The 35-year-old, who got married in September, is coming off a win by spinning back kick over Travis Briere at an event in Windsor in July.

Clementi, who was supposed to fight at an event in Oshawa in August before it was cancelled, will be competing Saturday on an even quicker turnaround than Alessio -- he defeated Ronnie Rogers at an event in Massachusetts on Nov. 12. Prior to that, he lost to Shinya Aoki at a Dream show in Japan in May.

James is a writer, editor and MMA enthusiast. His nickname, "Big Game" was given to him in the tradition of former Laker James Worthy and current Rays pitcher James Shields.