...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC 161 seems to be the UFC's cursed card for 2013. After the main event was lost due to an injury to Interim Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao, the UFC promoted the third fight from the top - a light heavyweight tilt between Dan Henderson and Rashad Evans - to the top slot. That move kept the light heavyweight bout between Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the co-main event spot, but that fight may now be off as well.
According to a report from Ivan Rupp at Brazil's SporTV, a nagging back problem will take Nogueira out of the fight. Per the report, pain from a herniated disc will take him out with the fight so close. However, it's not said to be serious, just too much to deal with as the fight is two weeks away.
The fight was set to be a rematch of a 2005 fight in Pride, where "Shogun" scored a decision win in a great fight. Unfortunately, the injury will delay Nogueira's return and his chance for revenge, putting a hold on his two-fight winning streak.
Rua isn't likely to remain on the card with only two weeks left to go, but the UFC hasn't made an official announcement as of yet.
Penick's Analysis: It was bad enough to lose a title fight from the card, but one of the reasons it was acceptable to have the Evans-Henderson fight remaining on top is because this fight was the co-main. That was essentially a strong enough top two to justify keeping things going as a pay-per-view, but losing this fight as well is devastating. With no title fight and a three-round main event, and now no more Shogun-Nogueira rematch, it's just a huge disappointment and another blow to the UFC attempting to run in a smaller Canadian market.
[Shogun Rua art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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