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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Jamie Varner spoke to Ariel Helwani at MMA FanHouse today to put to rest a report that was making waves today. The Youngstown Vindicator attributed statements to WEC general manager Reed Harris in a report on the upcoming September event, featuring a bout likely for an Interim Lightweight belt between Donald Cerrone and Ben Henderson, that stated that Varner would be stripped of the belt shortly and may never fight again.
Varner told FanHouse that the report was "bulls**t." He went on to say he's spoken with the WEC's matchmaker Sean Shelby and expects to fight late this year or early next year. The initial plan was to have a rematch with Cerrone, but Varner had to bow out recently as a broken hand he suffered in their bout in January was not healed enough and he was not cleared by doctors. He said originally he was cleared to weight train too early and it led to the hand not healing properly.
Further, Helwani spoke with Harris to clear up his statements and he stated, "My comments were really designed to allow Jamie to certainly come back when he was healthy, and this interim belt was done based on the fact that there's no timetable for his return...Right now, we're just waiting for Jamie to heal up, and as soon as that happens his camp will notify us, and then we could begin to schedule another fight for him."
WEC 43: Cerrone vs. Henderson takes place on Wednesday, September 2, from the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio. The card will air live on Versus.
Penick's Analysis: A collective sigh of relief is let out by many fans to see that the Vindicator article was false, as Varner's a very good young fighter and it would have been a damn shame for his career to be cut that short from injuries. The Interim belt is fine until Varner's ready to go as it allows for a five round bout between Cerrone and Henderson to set up the shot at him when he's able to return. Varner's getting a lot of flack from people these days, but the fact is if you're not cleared to fight there isn't a whole lot else you can do about it. We can only hope he's good to go by January so we can finally see that long awaited rematch with Cerrone.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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