File this under the “What the hell is going on?” category.
A day after Cain Velasquez was forced out of his UFC 196 heavyweight title fight against division champion Fabricio Werdum (details here), “Vai Cavalo” has followed suit.
According to a report from MMA Fighting, Werdum was injured going into the fight, but after news broke that Cain had bowed out, the Brazilian titleholder felt it was in his best interest to do the same instead of facing last-minute replacement Stipe Miocic.
His words:
“I was already injured. I have a foot injury, and haven’t been able to throw kicks in training for two weeks. I would still fight Cain because I was injured the last time, but I also hurt my back last Friday. I went to the doctor, tried to continue training, but couldn’t spar as I should spar. I decided not to fight because I’m not 100 percent. If Cain was the opponent, I would go on. It’s not his fault, it’s nobody’s fault. Injuries happen. You can’t avoid them. I have no option. I made this decision because I’m not feeling 100 percent. I made this decision together with my team. We decided not to fight. Cain can’t fight. I was going to hide the injury one more time, like I always did. I tried to hide it, but couldn’t this time. I can’t fight if I’m not 100 percent to put on a show like I always did. It took me a long time to get here and win this belt, be the champion, to throw everything away because I’m not 100 percent. I have to think about everything now, I can’t think and act like I did when I was 20. It’s not like that anymore. Everything changed. I’m 38 now, and I feel I’m at the best moment of my career, and I can’t risk my career because of pride.”
Bummer.
For now, Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson seems to be in line to headline the event, with Roy Nelson and Jared Rosholt serving as co-headliners.
Not exactly the star-power UFC was thinking of for their annual Super Bowl Weekend pay-per-view (PPV) event, but when life hands you lemons…