It appears that the UFC has shelved plans to stage its first event in Mexico, after it emerged that heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez suffered a shoulder injury after his last fight.
The news also means that there are no dates set for his next title defense against Brazilian Fabricio Werdum.
UFC president Dana White told Yahoo! Sports that reports on a Spanish-language website that Velasquez would face Werdum at UFC 172 in Mexico City on either April 19 or 26 were false.
We haven’t offered anyone a fight for that card and Cain is injured right now and might need surgery. … Obviously, we’re not going to Mexico without Cain Velasquez.
Velasquez is said to have sustained the injury during his blistering second defeat of Junior dos Santos in their encounter last month. The incumbent champion dominated that fight; however, the intensity at which he fought could have contributed to the injury.
Confirming the news to Yahoo! Sports, Velasquez’s trainer Javier Mendez said the heavyweight first mentioned the injury to him moments after the fight.
It was one of those things where it had no impact on him in the fight, but after it’s over and the adrenaline isn’t going as much, you go, ‘Uh oh, I may have done something.’ He never said a thing about it during the fight, but I was with him after just before we went to the press conference and he told me he thought he hurt his shoulder.
Melendez, as well as Velasquez’s manager Bob Cook, also suggest that they don’t know at this time as to how serious the injury is and whether, after rehab, the fighter could be ready to fight in April after all. That will depend on the results of a second MRI scan the heavyweight is due to have.
The uncertainty seems enough for the UFC to postpone its venture south of the border, which is a major part of the promotion’s plans to move into Latin America in 2014.
In July, the UFC announced a partnership with Mexican sports channel Televisa Deportes Network, which was its first TV deal in a country where boxing still dominates the world of combat sports.
To unseat that sport in the hearts and minds of Mexicans, who were recently captivated by their star boxer Canelo Alvarez’s failed attempt to defeat Floyd Mayweather, would require a concerted effort by the UFC. Clearly the promotion thinks that only a fight involving its heavyweight champion, a son of Mexican immigrants, can accomplish that.
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