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By Rich Hansen, MMA Torch Columnist
Kenny Florian has been forced out of his main event fight versus Evan Dunham at UFC: Fight For The Troops 2. Florian issued the following statement on his website:
"It is with deep regret that I will not be able to compete in my scheduled fight against Evan Dunham on January 22nd, due to a knee injury I sustained during training this morning. Although I have not had an MRI as of yet; the doctors are cautiously optimistic that it will not require surgery.
I want to express my sincere apologies to the fans, the UFC and Evan for not being able to compete at UFC Fight Night 23: Fight for the Troops 2. Since early September, I have been training for this fight. Evan is a great fighter and has undoubtedly been working very hard towards this fight as well. Plus, it is a big disappointment that I will not be able to fight in the octagon for the brave soldiers that fight for us.
I am determined to return to the octagon in the first half on 2011. Accordingly, I will keep you all updated"
According to heavy.com, Melvin Guillard will slide into Florain's slot. The newly christened Evan Dunham vs. Melvin Guillard fight is expected to remain the main event. Guillard was already shceduled to fight veteran Yves Edwards on this card. It is unknown whether Edwards will get a new fight, or be pulled from the card.
Hansen's Take: Well this both sucks and rocks. It sucks for Florian, obviously, losing out on a main event fight that 2,000,000 people would have seen on Spike. And I would speculate that this could be more than a minor injury. He both suffered the injury and pulled out of the fight, which is six weeks off, all in the course of one day. Florian's a gifted fighter and by all accounts a hell of a guy, so let's hope he gets back in the cage soon.
It also sucks for Dunham. He's been training for Florian, and now has to change course and come up with a game plan for a far different fighter in Guillard. And Dunham no longer gets the opportunity from a loss to Sean Sherk by facing off against a top 10 opponent.
It also sucks for Yves Edwards, but not really, since he wasn't beating Guillard even on his best day.
But on the positive side, the UFC was able to stem a crisis immediately by taking someone who was scheduled for an undercard fight and seamlessly slide him into the main event. I'm interested to see how Guillard approaches this fight. Guillard was heavy criticized for his underwhelming, yet effective and victorious, decision victory over Jeremy Stephens at UFC 119. For the first time, Guillard fought a conservative fight, to the surprise of most observers who expected a sluggfest.
Three questions I'd like to see answered about Guillard include:
1.) Can Dunham take a Melvin Guillard punch? (Don't know yet)
2.) Did Guillard fight that style against Stephens because he and Greg Jackson determined it to be stooopid to stand and bang with the heavy handed Stephens? (Probably)
3.) Was Guillard's performance underwhelming because everything on that horrific UFC 119 card was cursed? (Definitely)
While Guillard isn't the same caliber of opponent that Florian is, this is probably a better fight for Dunham at this point in his career, and is a worthy replacement.
And if I may ...
Strikeforce fills it's unaired prelim fights with local fighters in order to sell tickets. They drew less than 7500 people Saturday night. The UFC puts Melvin Guillard, Mike Swick, and Rani Yahya on their undercard of a basic cable show.
Just sayin'.
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