One man's loss is another man's gain.
Less than one day after former WEC champion Carlos Condit was forced to withdraw from a highly anticipated UFC 127 contest with Chris Lytle (30-17-5 MMA, 9-9 UFC), longtime veteran Brian Ebersole (44-15 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has been tapped as a replacement.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the switch, which was first reported by Fight News Australia, with sources close to the event.
UFC 127 takes place Feb. 27 at Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia and airs live on pay-per-view. Due to the time difference, the event airs live in the U.S. on Feb. 26 in its normal Saturday-night timeslot. A welterweight clash between former champion B.J. Penn and perennial contender Jon Fitch headlines.
An American-fighter now based in Australia, Ebersole carries a seven-fight win streak into the matchup, and his lone loss in his past 12 overall fights was to current Bellator Fighting Championships middleweight champion Hector Lombard. Fighting professionally since 2000, Ebersole has competed under the Strikeforce and International Fight League banners, as well as King of the Cage.
During his extensive career, Ebersole has clashed with MMA notables Stephan Bonnar, Tony Fryklund, Ed Herman, Matt Horwich, Lombard, Carlos Newton, Kyle Noke, Shannon Ritch, Kerry Schall, Alex Schoenauer, Alex Serdyukov and Nick Thompson, among others.
Lytle, meanwhile, quietly has amassed a four-fight win streak with UFC victories over Kevin Burns, Brian Foster, Matt Brown and former champ Matt Serra. "The Ultimate Fighter 4" runner-up said he wants to close out his career with a shot at the belt, though it's unclear now where he stands in the title contention picture.
For the latest on UFC 127, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
Check out more UFC News at MMAjunkie.com. This story originally appeared on MMAjunkie.com and is syndicated on Yahoo! Sports as part of a content-partnership deal between the two sites.