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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
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.
[Brandon Vera art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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