Pictured: Callan Potter (Source: William Luu, Hex Fight Series)

Australian Top Team fighter Alex Gorgees has pulled out of his UFC 234 lightweight bout against Jalin Turner stating personal reasons. A report from FloCombat.com indicates that Victorian local Callan Potter will step up to replace Gorgees on short notice for his UFC debut.

Potter will have less than two weeks to prepare for the bout, scheduled to take place in front of a sold out crowd at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Victoria on February 10. Australia’s Rob Whittaker headlines the card as he attempts to defend his middleweight title.

A veteran of the local scene, Potter (17-7) is a former Valor welterweight champion and an Eternal and Hex Fight Series lightweight champion. Winning nine out of his last 10 bouts, the 34 year-old’s lone loss in that time came at the hands of former UFC fighter and submission specialist Marcin Held. Potter rebounded in his last outing as he stepped back up to the welterweight division and defeated Kiwi B.J. Bland in an entertaining back-and-forth clash at Eternal 40.

Turner (7-4) came to the UFC via Dana White’s Contender Series though had a tough first outing when he got called up on short notice. Turner suffered a vicious knock-out loss to Vicente Luque at UFC 229 back in October in a welterweight clash and will now be hoping that the cut back down to his normal fighting weight will steady the ship.

Main Card:

Robert Whittaker (c) vs. Kelvin Gastelum – UFC middleweight title

Israel Adesanya vs. Anderson Silva

Rany Yahya vs. Ricky Simon

Devonte Smith vs. Dong Hyun Ma

Jim Crute vs. Sam Alvey

Preliminary Card:

Shane Young vs. Austin Arnett

Montana De La Rosa vs. Nadia Kassem

Kai Kara-France vs. Raulian Paiva

Teruto Ishihara vs. Kyung Ho Kang

Early Preliminary Card: