UFC 187 was originally considered the crown jewel of the UFC’s 2015 slate of events. Now, after suffering two major blows in as many days, it will be a much lesser beast that slouches into Las Vegas on May 23.
Khabib Nurmagomedov, the undefeated Dagestani Russian phenom, is now apparently injured and out of his lightweight title eliminator bout with Donald Cerrone. That’s according to a report published Wednesday night by John Morgan of MMAJunkie.com.
The injury is in Nurmagomedov’s meniscus, and it is unclear whether surgery will be required or when he might return to competition.
From what I’m told, it seems @TeamKhabib’s injury is to his meniscus. Surgery possible but not certain. Decision made soon, but out at 187.
— John Morgan (@MMAjunkieJohn) April 30, 2015
If the injury is in Nurmagomedov’s right meniscus, that would be a repeat of the injury that scuttled his first scheduled bout with Cerrone last September at UFC 178. Either way, two meniscus injuries could raise major red flags.
In losing this bout, UFC 187 loses the third-largest fight on its card. On Tuesday, it lost its largest when Jon Jones was stripped of his light heavyweight title and suspended indefinitely following his alleged hit-and-run incident from Sunday. Though Daniel Cormier replaces Jones and faces Anthony Johnson for that newly vacant title, the bout has undoubtedly lost major luster as a result of Jones’ suspension.
The co-main event is scheduled as a middleweight title fight between Chris Weidman and challenger Vitor Belfort. UFC officials have to be hoping for better luck in that fight.
As for Nurmagomedov, the charismatic and well-rounded 26-year-old is 22-0 and looks to be one of the UFC’s fast-rising stars. He has previously beaten current champion Rafael dos Anjos, and had he gotten by Cerrone, probably would have been favored to do so again in a rematch.
Earlier this week, Nurmagomedov told MMAJunkie.com that he finally was back to 100 percent and was ready to challenge for the belt.
“I’m doing everything,” he said in the interview. “Wrestling, boxing…I do everything that I did before my injury.”
It looks like that talk unfortunately may have been premature.
As for UFC 187, Cerrone will probably want to stay on the card, and there should be plenty of suitors looking to snap up the high-profile slot. It will be interesting to see what the UFC does to try to salvage a tantalizing high-stakes matchup on a card that suddenly needs one of those in the worst way.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com