Czech light heavyweight Karlos Vemola (8-1) has been forced off his upcoming UFC 128 bout with Luiz Cane (10-3, 1 NC) due to a “health issue.”
The update was reported by MMAFighting.com on Tuesday afternoon who were informed of the issue from sources close to the situation. “Vemola was recently diagnosed with a serious infection that has left him unable to train. Faced with the issue, he was forced to pull out of the fight.”
The UFC is looking for a replacement to meet Cane at the event. Their match was to have been part of the Spike TV “UFC Prelims” special, so it’s not clear whether Cane will meet a new opponent on Spike or be replaced on Television by another scheduled preliminary bout.
Vemola earned a win in his second UFC bout stopping Seth Petruzelli at UFC 122. He dropped down to light heavyweight for the fight and earned the “Knockout of the Night” bonus for TKOing “The Silverback” in the first round. He made his UFC debut back in July at UFC 116 as a heavyweight, losing a unanimous decision to Jon Madsen, the first loss of his career.
Cane is 3-3 in the UFC and has lost his last two fights, a third loss would almost certainly mean expulsion from the promotion. He only fought once in 2010, losing to Cyrille Diabate via TKO at UFC 114. The other loss was to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 106 in November of 2009, a first round TKO defeat for the Brazilian.
UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones is scheduled to take place on March 19 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.