For the first time in nearly two years, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) color-commentator Joe Rogan will not be cageside calling a pay-per-view (PPV) fight card.
According to a report by Ariel Helwani on Tuesday's (July 23, 2013) edition of FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight," a scheduling conflict will prevent Rogan from making the trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for UFC 163: "Aldo vs. Korean Zombie" on Aug. 3, 2013.
Replacing Rogan in the broadcast booth for his first PPV event absence since UFC 134, which was also held in South America, will be none other than recently retired UFC middleweight Brian Stann.
Stann's commentary career has flourished in just the short timespan since he retired as on top of his duties as an analyst for UFC fight cards on FOX, the 32-year-old will also call the action on ACC college football games beginning next season.
Typically the man to step in for Rogan if he is unable to make it to an event is former two-division UFC title challenger Kenny Florian; however, it appears Florian was either unable to make the trip or the organization decided to experiment and go a different direction with the PPV commentary team.
Either way, Stann and longtime UFC play-by-play man Mike Goldberg will walk viewers through the action of the 12-bout card, which is headlined by a Featherweight championship contest of Jose Aldo vs. Chan Sung Jung and goes down inside HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
For more news and notes on UFC 163 be sure to visit our complete event archive here.