Nick Penner Injured, Light Heavyweight Bout with Tom DeBlass Nixed from UFC on Fuel TV 4

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A planned light heavyweight contest between Nick Penner and Tom DeBlass has been scratched from the UFC on Fuel TV 4 fight bill.

Penner recently suffered an undisclosed injury and will be unable to compete at the July 11 event. As a result, the Las Vegas-based promotion has elected to scrap the contest altogether. The news was announced during Tuesday night’s episode of “UFC Tonight” on Fuel TV.

DeBlass (Pictured) will be booked to compete at a future event, and UFC on Fuel TV 4 will move forward with 11 bouts, according to promotion officials. The show takes place at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., and is headlined by a middleweight tilt between former NCAA All-American wrestlers Chris Weidman and Mark Munoz.

Penner, 32, recently saw an eight-fight winning streak snapped by Australian grappling specialist Anthony Perosh, who pounded out the Canadian with just one second remaining in the first round of their March 3 confrontation. Penner has finished nine of his 11 career victims inside the distance, stopping five of them by submission.

DeBlass, 30, suffered his first pro defeat when he stepped up on two weeks’ notice to face Cyrille Diabate at UFC on Fuel TV 2 in Stockholm. Though the Ricardo Almeida Jiu-Jitsu representative started the contest with a takedown, he fatigued noticeably as the bout wore on, eventually dropping a majority decision to “The Snake.” Prior to his UFC stint, DeBlass fought his entire pro career in Ring of Combat, recording five finishes in seven wins en route to capturing the promotion’s light heavyweight title.