(Forget it Dana. He’s coming with me to Hollywood.)

Jason MacDonald‘s loss will be fellow Canadian Jesse Bongfeldt’s gain as the Kenora, Ontario native will now step in for "The Athlete" who was forced to pull out of his UFC 124 bout with Rafael Natal due to a re-injury to the leg he broke at UFC 113 in May.

The opponent change was revealed by Natal’s management group Dominance MMA who announced the news via Twitter and Facebook today.

12-1 in his last 13 outings, Bongfeldt (21-6), who is the former Rumble in the Cage and TKO champion has not lost since getting TKO’d by Jonathan Goulet in 2007. His biggest win saw him defend his TKO welterweight strap by tapping out submission specialist TJ Grant with an armbar in 2008 at TKO 32.

Bongfeldt took time off from fighting following the Grant bout in 2008 after the birth of his son and relocated back to Ontario from Calgary where he spent several years training alongside UFC veteran Jason Day at Canadian Martial Arts Centre under trainer Lee Mein.


When Grant was signed by the UFC, many wondered how he had leapfrogged Bongfeldt to get to the Octagon, but the reality was that TJ had continued to be active and racked up some impressive wins after the loss to "Water" and Jesse had stepped away from MMA when the promotion was looking for Canadian fighters to round out their cards in the Great White North.

Bongfeldt hasn’t fought since September of last year and fought the majority of his career as a welterweight, so it will be interesting to see what kind of shape he will be in for the bout in December as whom he will bring in for his camp, since his gym isn’t steeped with high-level training partners.

Check out the Grant fight below:

*Note: Your ears don’t deceive you. That IS "Big" John McCarthy commentating alongside Mauro "The BiPolar Rock-and-Roller" Ranallo. If you recall, a desire to commentate prompted BJM to "retire" (see Randy Couture) from refereeing in 2007, only to return to the cage as an official two years later.

(Video courtesy YouTube neerbnadroj or jordanbreen)

(Video courtesy YouTube neerbnadroj or jordanbreen)