...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Brazilian outlet Tatame.com reported on Saturday night that UFC Interim Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao had suffered an injury which will take him out of UFC 161 next month in Winnipeg. UFC President Dana White has now confirmed Barao's injury, and though the Brazilian isn't yet officially out of the event yet, it's not likely he'll be able to go forward to the card.
When asked if Barao was going to be out of the event, White replied to MMAFighting.com's Dave Meltzer via text message, "probably."
If it holds up, that will be the first main event cancellation of 2013 for the UFC, after having to go through that several times in 2012. It's not yet known whether the UFC will search for a replacement main event, or promote one of the fights already on the card.
Penick's Analysis: This isn't good for the Winnipeg event right now, and there's not really a lot available to toss into the main event slot here. They've got other events which need big fights still, and they may not have many big names ready or willing to step up on short notice to make this card work. They may have to settle for putting Shogun-Nogueira in that slot or even bumping up Evans-Henderson despite their recent losses, even though they'd then have to settle for a lesser pay-per-view audience. That may be their only option right now, but we'll see in the next week if they can throw something else together instead.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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