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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber will have to wait a bit longer to make his WEC bantamweight debut.
Faber announced on Twitter today that he suffered an injury in training this week and has had to pull out of his scheduled bout against Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 50 in August.
Faber also spoke with Ariel Helwani at Versus.com to give more details on the situation, and it was a lower body injury that has forced him out of the fight.
"I'm OK," Faber said. "I was pretty upset when it first happened, man. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life. This is the first time that I haven't been stuffing myself to keep weight on... I was walking around from 149 to 153 before or after a meal, just feeling great.
"It's really unfortunate, man, but I really can't be too upset. I know I'm going to get back in there."
Jose Aldo defeated Faber by a one-sided unanimous decision in April in the main event of the WEC's first pay-per-view, and after recovering from an onslaught of brutal leg kicks in the fight, Faber was set to drop down a weight class.
Mizugaki is being kept off the WEC 50 card, according to Helwani's report, and a fourth bout will be added to the televised card of the August 18 event.
WEC 50 will air live on Versus, and is scheduled to be headlined by a WEC Bantamweight Title bout between Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez.
Penick's Analysis: Very unfortunate hit to this card. Faber vs. Mizugaki was a great piece of match-making, so hopefully with the WEC not finding a replacement this fight will just get delayed a little bit. Faber sounds disappointed, but in good spirits, so hopefully it won't be an extra long layoff and they'll still be able to set up this fight.
RELATED STORY: WEC NEWS: Scott Jorgensen vs. Brad Pickett coming to WEC 50 in August: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
[Urijah Faber art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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