Good news: a UFC fighter isn’t injured after all.
Despite reports out of Brazil stating the contrary, Cain Velasquez is ready to fight Junior dos Santos at UFC 152 in September.
Dos Santos’ jiu-jitsu coach, Yuri Carlton, told Tatame.com (via Fighters Only) recently that due to Velasquez’s broken hand, the heavyweight title rematch will probably happen in December. However, Javier Mendez, Velasquez’s head coach at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif., told MMAFighting.com on Wednesday that Velasquez’s hand is 100 percent healthy and he is already training for the rematch.
“We’re looking at Sept. 22 as fight day,” Mendez said.
Mendez hypothesized that Carlton misread the post-UFC 146 medical suspension list, which stated that if Velasquez’s left hand was broken, he would be medically suspended until Nov. 20. Fortunately, x-rays later showed that Velasquez didn’t break his hand in his win over Antonio Silva on May 26.
On Friday, UFC president Dana White said that the promotion was hoping to bring JDS vs. Velasquez 2 and B.J. Penn vs. Rory MacDonald to Toronto’s Rogers Centre for UFC 152 on Sept. 22. As of right now, those plans are still in place.