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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC 108 card was looking to be perhaps the best the UFC had ever put together, but now it's lost three possible Title fights for the night's headliner.
First out was Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, as Silva is recovering from elbow surgery and would not be ready by that date. The second was Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, as Machida had to get surgery on his hand and would not be recovered in time for the January 2nd date. Now Brock Lesnar has been forced to push back his return against Shane Carwin even further, according to a report from Heavy.com.
Lesnar has been battling an illness for the better part of the last month that forced the postponement of their headlining bout at this month's UFC 106. Now, according to the report, Lesnar's continued battle with the illness has not allowed him to even begin training properly and he will not be prepared by January 2nd to defend his Title.
That leaves Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva as the currently top card on the bill, although a bout between Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has been reported as a possibility for the event. The Heavy.com report states, however, that Cain's camp has denied those reports.
The UFC's fall and early winter schedule has been ransacked by injuries, illness and insanity (Rampage), turning a number of blockbuster events into seemingly middle of the road cards as far as UFC standards are concerned. It will make for a very busy and interesting spring of 2010, however, as all four remaining Champions, outside of B.J. Penn who defends his belt in December, will likely return to action.
Penick's Analysis: Well this is another blow to what was looking like a spectacular card. It's hard to actually feel bad for the UFC but they can't seem to catch a break here with these big fights down the stretch of their most lucrative pay-per-view year ever. Still, the Champions need to recover, as fans everywhere want to see them defend their belts at their best possible level, and it should make for some great fights in 2010. I hope the Velasquez vs. Nogueira fight is the real deal despite the AKA denial, as that fight would be an acceptable replacement main event, and a great fight to boot.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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