Daniel Cormier still on UFC 170, takes on UFC newcomer, Patrick Cummins

May 19, 2012; San Jose, CA, USA; Daniel Cormier (left) hits Josh Barnett (right) during the heavyweight tournament final bout of the Strikeforce World Grand Prix at HP Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Late last night, former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, Rashad Evans, was injured in training and forced to withdraw from next week’s co-main event bout against Daniel Cormier. Cormier, who was set to fight at Light Heavyweight for the first time, was absolutely devastated that he lost his opponent and would have to wait to fight.

Initially, Chael Sonnen offered his services, but the UFC could not risk losing the Sonnen/Wanderlei Silva fight. It seemed the UFC would have to pull Cormier off the card due to the lack of suitable challengers and reschedule the Evans bout. In fact, earlier today there were reports that the Cormier/Evans bout would be moved to the already stacked UFC 172 event.

Well, the UFC has pulled a trick out of there sleeve at the last possible moment, signing Patrick Cummins to fill in for Evans on just over a week’s notice. Cummins and Cormier actually have a history as they were training partners back in their wrestling days. Cummins is an established wrestler in his own right as he was a two-time All-American at Penn State University and was the national champion runner-up.

Cummins is 4-0 in MMA with 4 finishes, and is a very bright prospect. According to multiple sources, Cummins has said that he used to dominate Cormier in training. Since the announcement of Evans’ injury, Cummins has been campaigning on Twitter to get the bout against Cormier:

After the announcement was made, Cummins had this to say on Twitter:

Daniel Cormier vs Patrick Cummins will serve as the co-main event of UFC 170 next weekend.