UFC 138

UFC 138: Leben vs. Muñoz is an upcoming mixed martial arts event to be held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on November 5, 2011 at LG Arena in Birmingham, England. The event will air on the same day, via tape delay, on Spike TV in the U.S. and live on Sportsnet in Canada. The event will be the second that the UFC has hosted in Birmingham, the first being UFC 89 back in 2008 also featuring Chris Leben in the main event.



Background


After several tenatively scheduled 2011 events  at various locations around the United Kingdom did not materialize, including Glasgow, Liverpool, London as well as a planned return to Ireland, it was expected that the organization would not hold an event in the area during 2011.
The main event will be the first non-title five round fight in the history of the UFC. 
Mark Scanlon was expected to face James Head at this event. However, Scanlon was pulled from the bout and replaced by promotional newcomer John Maguire Then, on September 28, Head himself pulled out of the fight due to an undisclosed injury and was replaced by Justin Edwards.
Pascal Krauss was expected to face John Hathaway at this event. However, on August 30 Krauss pulled out of the bout citing a shoulder injury, and was replaced by Matt Brown. Then on October 17 it was announced that Hathaway was forced to withdraw from the bout due to injury as well. As a result, Brown was pulled from the event and will face Seth Baczynski at UFC 139.
Philip De Fries was expected to face Oli Thompson at this event. However, on October 17 it was announced that Thompson was forced to withdraw from the bout due to injury. De Fries will now meet Rob Broughton at this event instead.
Anthony Njokuani was scheduled to fight Paul Taylor on the main card. However, Taylor sustained a whiplash injury during a minor traffic collision on November 1 forcing him from the bout. Due to insufficient time to find a replacement, Njokuani will be moved to a future card, while a prelim fight between Cyrille Diabate and Anthony Perosh has been promoted to the main card.




Official fight card


Preliminary card (Facebook)
Bantamweight bout: Chris Cariaso vs. Vaughan Lee
Cariaso defeated Lee via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28).
Welterweight bout: Chris Cope vs. Che Mills
Mills defeated Cope via TKO (knees and punches) at 0:40 of round 1.
Featherweight bout: Michihiro Omigawa vs. Jason Young
Omigawa defeated Young via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Heavyweight bout: Rob Broughton vs. Philip De Fries
Welterweight bout: John Maguire vs. Justin Edwards




Main card


Light Heavyweight bout: Cyrille Diabaté vs. Anthony Perosh
Lightweight bout: Terry Etim vs. Eddie Faaloloto
Welterweight bout: Thiago Alves vs. Papy Abedi
Bantamweight bout: Brad Pickett vs. Renan Barão
Middleweight bout: Chris Leben vs. Mark Muñoz