Update: According to MMA Junkie’s John Morgan and MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, the UFC has confirmed that Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio Rua is canceled.
Currently, the promotion is looking a replacement before pulling “Shogun” off the card.
Another UFC event, another injury.
It appears that the much-anticipated UFC 161 fight between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Shogun Rua is in jeopardy, with reports claiming that “Little Nog” has an injured back.
Bloody Elbow relays the latest news, straight from Globo:
On his 37th birthday, the light-heavyweight Brazilian Rogerio Nogueira had to deal with an unpleasant situation: he will be forced to give up his rematch against Mauricio Rua at UFC 161 on June 15 in Winnipeg, Canada. A back problem again bothered the fighter.
Nogueira had been preparing well for the fight, but felt back pain because of a herniated disc in training last Monday. The problem is not serious, but it was enough to get him out of the fight, due to the proximity of it.
Naturally, the injury is extremely poor timing, but if it does in fact keep Nogueira from competing on June 15 on the Canada-bound card, there’s replacements available.
In fact, over a dozen fighters could get the call.
Should the UFC desire someone coming off a win, some likely names could include Ryan Bader, Phil Davis, Wanderlei Silva, Matt Hamill or Jimi Manuwa.
Lyoto Machida and Alexander Gustafsson are also awaiting Octagon returns, but both of them are on the short list of current contenders to Jon Jones’ UFC title.
This would also be Nogueira’s third injury since August 2011.
Previously, the Brazilian had actually been set up for bouts against former champion Rich Franklin (at UFC 133) and Gustafsson (at UFC on Fuel TV 2), but both a shoulder injury and a late knee injury derailed both matchups, respectively.
McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist. His work has appeared in NVision, PC World, Macworld, GamePro, 1UP, MMA Mania and The L.A. Times.
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