Humberto Bandenay, Tim Means Fill Replacement Roles For UFC Fight Night 121 in Sydney

UFC Fight Night 121 has two new faces on the card.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Sydney, Australia, will now see Tim Means step in for “Ultimate Fighter” Season 25 winner Jesse Taylor to face Belal Muhammad in a welterweight contest, while Humberto Bandenay fills in for Jeremy Kennedy in a featherweight bout against Alexander Volkanovski.

The UFC officially announced the booking changes on Wednesday. Taylor was pulled from his bout with Muhammad last month after he was notified by the of a potential drug test failure by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), while Kennedy sustained an undisclosed injury.

Means, 33, was choked out in his rematch with “Cowboy” Alex Oliveira this past March in Brazil, but rebounded by pounding out a unanimous decision victory over Alex Garcia in June. Muhammad has pieced together a 3-2 UFC mark in just 15 months, taking wins over Augusto Montano, Randy Brown and Jordan Mein, while dropping bouts to Alan Jouban and Vicente Luque.

The 23-year-old Bandenay came to the attention of MMA fans in August with his rousing knockout of Martin Bravo in Mexico City for his sixth straight win. Australia’s Volkanovski has won 12 straight, including his first two bouts in the Octagon. Last November, “Alexander the Great” knocked out Yusuke Kasuya, then returned in June to take a unanimous decision over Mizuto Hirota.

UFC Fight Night 121 is scheduled for Nov. 19 at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, headlined by a heavyweight bout between former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum facing Marcin Tybura. The main card airs live on Fox Sports 1, with the preliminary undercard streaming on UFC Fight Pass.