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
Just when you think the hits can't possibly keep on coming, another co-headlining fight has been struck by the injury bug. According to a report from Sherdog.com, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has suffered a fractured ankle in training and is out of his scheduled bout with Brandon Vera at UFC 109.
Nogueira, brother of former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, made a highly impressive debut for the UFC last month at UFC 106 with a first round TKO over Luis Cane. The bout with Vera would have been another chance for Nogueira to shoot up the light heavyweight ranks.
The UFC is now looking for another opponent for Vera for the February 6th event in Las Vegas. The main event features Randy Couture against Mark Coleman in the first ever bout between two UFC Hall of Famers.
Penick's Analysis: They really just can't catch a break here. These first two events of 2010 are just getting destroyed by injury right now, and this is a highly unfortunate loss for this one. Nogueira's debut over Cane was so impressive it brought discussion about him getting into the Title picture in quick fashion, and this pushes his progression up that ladder much further off. I'm not even sure who they'll find to stick into that slot on 109 with how many people have gone down, but this is certainly a loss to what would have been a good fight.
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