(WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT, TJ? CAN’T YOU SEE THAT *WE’RE* THE ONES IN REAL PAIN?!! via Getty.)
Perhaps the most shocking thing about UFC 185 was not the pair of title fight upsets that occurred that night, but that all of the fighters competing in said title fights even managed to make it to fight night at all. There aren’t many injury-free fighters like Jeremy Horn these days, to the point that the UFC is forced to abandon plans for a card containing just one title fight more often than not, or just cancel the card altogether. With UFC 186, they were attempting to do the impossible again, booking both the TJ Dillashaw–Renan Barao bantamweight title fight rematch and a flyweight bout between champion Demetrious Johnson and Kyro…Kyjo…some other guy.
What I’m saying is, we probably shouldn’t be that surprised to learn that one of those 2 title fights (the one we were interested in, more specifically) will no longer be happening.
Details after the jump.
Winning a UFC title nowadays is akin to moving into the Amityville house, or feeding your Mogwai after midnight and not expecting some serious shenanigans to transpire. As such, newly-crowned bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw — who has pulled out of exactly zero fights in his UFC career due to injury — has been forced out of UFC 186 with a fractured rib. (via the UFC’s official report):
UFC President Dana White said Tuesday that TJ Dillashaw has sustained a rib fracture that will force a postponement of his much-anticipated UFC 186 bantamweight rematch against Renan Barao in Montreal on April 25.
White revealed the news during an interview with Los Angeles radio personality Kurt “Big Boy” Alexander on KRRL-FM 92.3.
Dillashaw’s injury occurred during training on Monday, White said. There is no immediate timetable for his return.
Fantastic.
This of course bumps the flyweight title match between Johnson and the other guy into the main event slot, which has been taken with the kind of grace you’d expect from MMA fans with Twitter accounts:
Great stuff, you guys. I guess the UFC can sleep easy knowing that most of these people weren’t planning on actually paying for UFC 186 in the first place. Go team!