Cruz reported the heavyweight champion suffered both a small fracture in his toe and a pulled muscle in his back, the latter of which he suffered on Monday according to a quote from Sherdog.
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“Now, this past Friday, I hurt my back”.
Less than 24 hours later, Werdum told Brazilian reporters that he was also pulling out of the fight due to a cracked toe and injured back. After twenty months away from the Octagon, Cain would go on to lose the title no one expected him to ever drop to Fabricio Werdum at UFC 188. “I greatly respect you as a fighter and man, and we will meet soon”.
Had Werdum fought, it would not have been the first time he went toe-to-toe with Velasquez while injured.
A possibility that was bandied about to replace the scrapped Werdum/Velasquez bout was to have Miocic fight either Josh Barnett or Ben Rothwell. I’m not a 20-year-old kid anymore.
“To be honest I wouldn’t want to fight me either you guys”, Miocic wrote on his Twitter page.
Barnett, who already held the UFC heavyweight championship in 2002, feels that a possible bout between him and Miocic should be a five-round championship fight to live up to the fan’s expectations. One tweet turned into gospel, and fans buzzed, eagerly anticipating the heavyweight debut – and UFC return – of “Bones”.
Stipe Miocic reacts to the news of Werdum’s withdrawal.
Rather than cancelling the event entirely, as they did with UFC 151 and UFC 176, the UFC is instead calling an audible by moving the card to cable television.
The Arizona State alum never gave his opponents a chance to catch their breath and from fight-to-fight, his improvements and progress were evident.
Jones (21-1 MMA, 15-1 UFC), whom UFC officials recently reinstated from a suspension following an April hit-and-run accident, had been looking for a chance to reclaim the light-heavyweight belt, which was stripped after his arrest.
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There are only two weeks left before the event, dubbed as the UFC’s annual Super Bowl weekend card, and there is utmost uncertainty as to what fight will fill in as the main event.
