Anthony Pettis Injured, ‘Korean Zombie’ to Face Jose Aldo in UFC 163 Headliner

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Anthony Pettis has suffered a knee injury that will not allow him to challenge Jose Aldo for the UFC featherweight title.

UFC President Dana White announced the news on Friday, revealing that Aldo will now defend his belt against Chan Sung Jung in the UFC 163 main event. Jung was initially booked to face Ricardo Lamas on July 6 at < a href="/events/UFC-162-Silva-vs-Weidman-28459">UFC 162; it is currently unknown if Lamas will remain on that bill.

The new headliner tops the Aug. 3 card, which takes place at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro and also features a light heavyweight confrontation pitting ex-champion Lyoto Machida against Phil Davis.

Commonly known as “The Korean Zombie,” Jung has won three straight fights since suffering back-to-back defeats to Leonard Garcia and George Roop to cap his World Extreme Cagefighting career. The 26-year-old avenged his controversial loss to Garcia in his UFC debut, submitting the brawler with a twister at Fight Night 24. Two more victories would follow for the South Korean, who knocked out former title challenger Mark Hominick in just seven seconds to close out 2011 before submitting Dustin Poirier with a brabo choke just over one year ago in Sherdog’s 2012 “Fight of the Year.”

Aldo, meanwhile, last competed on Feb. 2, when he took a hard-fought unanimous decision from ex-lightweight ruler Frankie Edgar at UFC 156. “Scarface” has not lost in more than seven years and owns a 4-0 UFC record, successfully defending his title against Hominick, Kenny Florian, Chad Mendes and Edgar.