THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
UFC President Dana White gave an update on UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar's surgery from this week to Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel on Wednesday, and the continued party line is that they are unsure if Lesnar will indeed fight again.
Said White, "He had a hole in his intestine. The (stuff) was leaking into his stomach. That's what was causing him so much pain. That and he had abscesses. The doctor told him he hasn't been right for a year. His immune system has been trying to fight this thing and that's why he was susceptible to getting sick... We'll find out more next week. We're going to send him to the Mayo Clinic for a couple of days. I don't know what to say. It's looking better now than last week, but what that means, I don't know."
It appears that whatever illnesses Lesnar had contracted, including the mono diagnosis he received just weeks ago, has been a result of an ongoing and, until now, undiagnosed problem. Hope is still being held that he will in fact be able to return to the Octagon, but until he gets follow up on this week's surgery and sees how well he can recover it will be a "wait and see" situation.
It's been a bad string of luck for the UFC since Lesnar's last fight on July's record setting UFC 100 event, though as White explains his mantra on these things, "I always say, the only guarantee when my big toe hits the floor in the morning is that something bad is about to happen."
Penick's Analysis: It's certainly good to get more actual information on just what has been going on with Lesnar, and from the description given by White today it sounds like a highly unpleasant ordeal. That said, everything seems to be moving in the right direction for Lesnar, and the more that comes out about the more I do believe Lesnar will return in 2010. While we won't know for sure until Lesnar does if he'll be able to return, I will continue to believe that he'll be able to come back from this.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP