(In a related story, Roy Nelson was recently diagnosed with advanced dickdo disease.)
Well, we saw this one coming a mile away. After suffering a “minor knee injury” back in September, Shane Carwin has now pulled out of his scheduled fight against Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale on December 15th, due to a knee injury that may or may not be related to the last one. UFC president Dana White confirmed the bad news last night, and said that the promotion is looking for a new opponent for Nelson.
It’s a terrible setback for Carwin, who hasn’t competed since June 2011 due to a series of neck and back surgeries, and was already forced to drop out of a fight with Nelson at UFC 125. Carwin hasn’t won a fight since his knockout of Frank Mir in March 2010, and at age 37, his competitive days are running out. There’s no word yet on the severity of Shane’s injury, or when he might return to action.
And by the way, this means that five of the last seven U.S. seasons of TUF — 10, 11, 13, 15, and now 16 — as well as one of the two international seasons (TUF Brazil), have ended with the coaches’ fight being canceled or delayed. Spooky. We’ll let you know when Roy Nelson picks up his replacement opponent. Our suggestion: How about Pat Barry, who’s already booked on the card against Shane Del Rosario?
And hey, speaking of UFC stars who have to pull out of fights next month due to knee injuries…
It was also confirmed yesterday that lightweight contender Gray Maynard recently caught a knee injury in training that will prevent him from meeting Joe Lauzon at UFC 155: Dos Santos vs. Velasquez II, December 29th in Las Vegas. According to Maynard’s manager, the Bully suffered tears in both the medial and lateral meniscus in his knee, and will undergo surgery next week. His recovery time is only expected to be three-to-five weeks before he can resume training. Maynard’s last appearance was that weird split-decision over Clay Guida in June.
Stepping in to replace Maynard against Lauzon will be Jim Miller, who will attempt to rebound from his submission loss to Nate Diaz in May. Better than nothing, I guess. The current lineup of UFC 155 looks like this…
Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez
Forrest Griffin vs. Phil Davis
Tim Boetsch vs. Chris Weidman
Alan Belcher vs. Yushin Okami
Chris Leben vs. Karlos Vemola
Brad Pickett vs. Eddie Wineland
Phil De Fries vs. Matt Mitrione
Michael Johnson vs. Myles Jury
Leonard Garcia vs. Cody McKenzie
Byron Bloodworth vs. Erik Perez