UFC on Fox 7 will take place this Saturday night, and like most UFC fight cards over the last few years, there will be some fights on the card that were not originally booked and one that has disappeared altogether.
Training camp injuries were behind the change of opponents for Chad Mendes and Hugo Viana as well as the late cancellation of the Jon Tuck versus Norman Parke bout.
Stranger circumstances were behind the change of opponents for Matt Brown.
Brown will face Jordan Mein on the Fox portion of the card after his original opponent, Dan Hardy, was removed from the card by the UFC.
According to MMAJunkie.com, Hardy’s electrocardiography (EKG) exam revealed that the UFC veteran had markers for Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a rare heart condition that in very rare cases can cause sudden cardiac arrest and sometimes death.
UFC president Dana White spoke to the media on Thursday about Hardy’s status and revealed that Hardy’s future with the promotion remains uncertain. “Lorenzo (Fertitta, UFC CEO) and I called Dan Hardy a couple weeks ago and got him set up with the best cardiologist in the country and he didn’t want to go,” White said. “He’s in serious denial right now or just afraid to hear from somebody that that’s the truth or that’s what’s going on.”
After Hardy turned down the UFC’s offer, White called the fighter, who told him, according to White, “I’m going through a lot of stuff personally right now, I’m getting married. I have a lot of family coming into town and just dealing with this whole thing at the same time is driving me crazy. I just want to put this on the back burner until I get my family stuff taken care of.”
White said this is the first time during his tenure with the UFC that they have ever dealt with the issue that Hardy is facing, adding in closing, “hopefully he’s been misdiagnosed.”
Hardy is 25-10-0-1 in his professional career and was riding a two-fight winning streak before he was removed from the Fox card.
**All quotes obtained firsthand by B/R MMA unless otherwise noted.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com