(MacDonald would have likely earned a title shot with a win over Condit, and has now gone down with an “undisclosed” injury. Methinks something foul is afoot.)
Thus far, 2013 has been a year surprisingly bereft of injuries, at least in the MMA community. Sure, there have been a couple of withdrawals here and there, but a UFC 151– level crisis? Nothing of the sort. And while we can be thankful that the first major injury of 2013 isn’t anywhere near as devastating to the upcoming UFC 158 card as Hendo’s was to UFC 151, it still leaves the card without a co-main event and minus a key rematch in the welterweight division.
We are talking, of course, about Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit, who were set to meet for the second time at UFC 158in a rematch of their thrilling brawl at UFC 115. Unfortunately, news broke earlier today that MacDonald has gone down with an undisclosed injury and will be forced to delay his shot at redemption, if he receives it at all. MMAFighting reports:
According to multiple sources close to the fight, MacDonald suffered an undisclosed injury in training recently, which has forced the young Canadian fighter to withdraw from his fight against Condit at UFC 158.
No opponent has been signed to replace MacDonald against Condit next month. As of now, he is still expected to compete on the card.
When questioned on what he thought could be the possible cause of his injury, MacDonald reportedly exclaimed, “Stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now,” before quickly exiting the room to “return some videotapes.” A strange turn of events indeed.
[UPDATE #1]
It is now being reported that Condit will in fact face Johny Hendricks in MacDonald’s absence — arguably just as interesting a matchup as Condit/MacDonald II in our opinion. Arguably. This move has left Jake Ellenberger without a dance partner for UFC 158, as a replacement opponent has yet to be named.
We will update you on Ellenberger’s sitauation as soon as the details are made available.
[UPDATE #2]
According to BleacherReport, MacDonald suffered a neck injury. And according to MMAJunkie’s John Morgan, final Strikeforce welterweight champ Tarec Saffiedine was originally offered the replacement fight against Condit, but he turned it down, which means he just incurred the wrath of a certain “mean little f*cker.”
(MacDonald would have likely earned a title shot with a win over Condit, and has now gone down with an “undisclosed” injury. Methinks something foul is afoot.)
Thus far, 2013 has been a year surprisingly bereft of injuries, at least in the MMA community. Sure, there have been a couple of withdrawals here and there, but a UFC 151– level crisis? Nothing of the sort. And while we can be thankful that the first major injury of 2013 isn’t anywhere near as devastating to the upcoming UFC 158 card as Hendo’s was to UFC 151, it still leaves the card without a co-main event and minus a key rematch in the welterweight division.
We are talking, of course, about Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit, who were set to meet for the second time at UFC 158in a rematch of their thrilling brawl at UFC 115. Unfortunately, news broke earlier today that MacDonald has gone down with an undisclosed injury and will be forced to delay his shot at redemption, if he receives it at all. MMAFighting reports:
According to multiple sources close to the fight, MacDonald suffered an undisclosed injury in training recently, which has forced the young Canadian fighter to withdraw from his fight against Condit at UFC 158.
No opponent has been signed to replace MacDonald against Condit next month. As of now, he is still expected to compete on the card.
When questioned on what he thought could be the possible cause of his injury, MacDonald reportedly exclaimed, “Stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now,” before quickly exiting the room to “return some videotapes.” A strange turn of events indeed.
[UPDATE #1]
It is now being reported that Condit will in fact face Johny Hendricks in MacDonald’s absence — arguably just as interesting a matchup as Condit/MacDonald II in our opinion. Arguably. This move has left Jake Ellenberger without a dance partner for UFC 158, as a replacement opponent has yet to be named.
We will update you on Ellenberger’s sitauation as soon as the details are made available.
[UPDATE #2]
According to BleacherReport, MacDonald suffered a neck injury. And according to MMAJunkie’s John Morgan, final Strikeforce welterweight champ Tarec Saffiedine was originally offered the replacement fight against Condit, but he turned it down, which means he just incurred the wrath of a certain “mean little f*cker.”
Chad Mendes‘ slow crawl back to featherweight title contention has hit another speed bump. The former 145-pound title challenger announced via Twitter that he’s been forced off of the UFC 157 fight card following injuries suffered by scheduled opponent Manny Gamburyan. Well guys it looks like I’m off the Anaheim card. Sucks pretty bad. Ill […]
Chad Mendes‘ slow crawl back to featherweight title contention has hit another speed bump. The former 145-pound title challenger announced via Twitter that he’s been forced off of the UFC 157 fight card following injuries suffered by scheduled opponent Manny Gamburyan. Well guys it looks like I’m off the Anaheim card. Sucks pretty bad. Ill […]
(Luckily for Freire, the referee’s attempt to blind him with a fistful of laundry detergent was not successful.)
We don’t want to jinx anything, but it has been at least 14 days since we reported on an injury in the MMA world here at CagePotato. It’s been a breath of fresh air, to be honest, and the first we’ve been able to enjoy since January of 2012. But all good things must come to an end, it saddens us to say, as it has been reported that lightweight knockout artist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire has suffered a knee injury that has forced him out of Bellator’s upcoming season 8 lightweight tournament (I can already hear your heart breaking, ALF). The news was broke via none other than the man himself via his twitter:
As it’s now been announced, I’m out of this week’s @BellatorMMA card. I suffered a knee injury at the end of my last sparring session.
(Luckily for Freire, the referee’s attempt to blind him with a fistful of laundry detergent was not successful.)
We don’t want to jinx anything, but it has been at least 14 days since we reported on an injury in the MMA world here at CagePotato. It’s been a breath of fresh air, to be honest, and the first we’ve been able to enjoy since January of 2012. But all good things must come to an end, it saddens us to say, as it has been reported that lightweight knockout artist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire has suffered a knee injury that has forced him out of Bellator’s upcoming season 8 lightweight tournament (I can already hear your heart breaking, ALF). The news was broke via none other than the man himself via his twitter:
As it’s now been announced, I’m out of this week’s @BellatorMMA card. I suffered a knee injury at the end of my last sparring session.
“Pitbull” was expected to headline tomorrow night’s Bellator 87 card in a lightweight quarterfinal matchup against Guillaume DeLorenzi, and has since been replaced by Saad Awad, a 12-4 Strikeforce veteran whose lone appearance in Bellator resulted in a first round submission via rear naked choke loss to Diego Garijo at BFC 10. Since dropping another submission to Joe Duarte in his Strikeforce debut back in April of 2011, however, Awad has put together a four fight win streak, with all of those victories coming via stoppage.
The news is the latest in what has been a streak of bad luck for Freire. After decimating seasoned veterans Rob McCullough and Toby Imada during his first Bellator tournament run, Pitbull has dropped three of his last four fights to lightweight champion Michael Chandler, Lloyd Woodard, and most recently, a brutal first round KO loss to former Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez.
Let’s hope Patricky can bounce back from this latest setback, as he is far and away one of the most entertaining fighters at 155 pounds, let alone under the Bellator banner.
(Healy Pat: The only title challenger so obscure that Strikeforce couldn’t even remember which of his names came first.)
We’re going to go out on a limb and assume that Pat Healy was either an SS guard or Ed Gein in his past life, because in recent weeks, something we can only chalk up to karma has been ravaging through his opponents like Roy Nelson through a free buffet. After collecting five straight wins under the Strikeforce banner — a feat made all the more impressive when you consider that Strikeforce has approximately 10 fighters left in their roster — Healy was scheduled to face off against lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez on Strikeforce’s September 29th card. However, when Melendez went down with an injury (go figure), Strikeforce quickly realized that the card was so garbage-ass that they should probably just cancel it altogether. And then cancel their next card for good measure.
(Healy Pat: The only title challenger so obscure that Strikeforce couldn’t even remember which of his names came first.)
We’re going to go out on a limb and assume that Pat Healy was either an SS guard or Ed Gein in his past life, because in recent weeks, something we can only chalk up to karma has been ravaging through his opponents like Roy Nelson through a free buffet. After collecting five straight wins under the Strikeforce banner — a feat made all the more impressive when you consider that Strikeforce has approximately 10 fighters left in their roster — Healy was scheduled to face off against lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez on Strikeforce’s September 29th card. However, when Melendez went down with an injury (go figure), Strikeforce quickly realized that the card was so garbage-ass that they should probably just cancel it altogether. And then cancel their next card for good measure.
Nothing has been set in stone yet, but suffice it to say, Healy should probably start rummaging through the Strikeforce roster — which again, most closely resembles the $5 DVD bin you come across at Walmart — for another beatable opponent. I hear Bobby Green is available, but that’s only because I just found out that Bobby Green is both an MMA fighter and currently a lightweight under the Strikeforce banner. Learning something every day.
Fun Fact: Strikeforce has officially changed the name of their final event from the hilariously-titled “Champions” to simply “Marquardt vs. Saffeidine” in light of recent events. If you ask me, they’re still setting themselves up for disappointment.
Although the undercard of UFC on FOX: Henderson vs. Diaz was punctuated with walk-off head kick KO’s and last second submissions, the evening’s greatest display of game planning arguably took place before the main card as well, during the bantamweight preliminary fight between Raphael Assuncao and Mike Easton. Using a Machida-esque strategy of evasion and counter-striking, Assuncao was able to not only frustrate Easton, but completely limit his normally hyper-aggressive offensive output en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Impressive to say the least, but even more impressive when you consider the fact that Assuncao was able to do so with a fractured arm he suffered in the first round. Assuncao tweeted the photo yesterday along with the following tweets:
Although the undercard of UFC on FOX: Henderson vs. Diaz was punctuated with walk-off head kick KO’s and last second submissions, the evening’s greatest display of game planning arguably took place before the main card as well, during the bantamweight preliminary fight between Raphael Assuncao and Mike Easton. Using a Machida-esque strategy of evasion and counter-striking, Assuncao was able to not only frustrate Easton, but completely limit his normally hyper-aggressive offensive output en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Impressive to say the least, but even more impressive when you consider the fact that Assuncao was able to do so with a fractured arm he suffered in the first round. Assuncao tweeted the photo yesterday along with the following tweets:
With the victory, Assuncao improved to 18-4 overall 3-0 as a bantamweight. Easton, on the other hand, saw an eight fight win streak (three of which came in the UFC) that dated back to 2007 snapped on Saturday night. The question is, who would you guys like to see Assuncao face when he heals up, and where do you think he stands amongst the division’s elite?
(Dominick Cruz, seen here seconds after being made aware that Dominick Cruz had been injured yet again.)
It just doesn’t end, you guys. It. Doesn’t. Fucking. End.
The insatiable injury curse of 2012 — seemingly fed up with claiming non-injured, active fighters — has somehow grown powerful enough to affect those who were already injured to begin with. NO, IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE.
And while the title may be a little misleading being that bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz didn’t truly re-injure himself, but rather failed to recuperate properly from the ACL injury that has kept him out of action since May, it looks like we won’t be seeing “The Dominator” dominating anything but a Domino’s delivery menu until late 2013 [WORDPLAY]. The newsbroke earlier today that the anterior cruciate ligament Cruz had replaced with that of a cadaver’s following his run on TUF 15 was rejected by his body, forcing the champ to undergo additional surgery in order repair/replace it.
“He’s pissed and disappointed,” remarked Cruz’s trainer Eric Del Fierro, echoing the sentiment of not only MMA fans around the world but that of MMA hack journalists such as myself.
I mean, I’m running out of ways to continue delivering bad news to you guys in this format. Creativity be damned; I feel like a World War 2 messenger at this point, just handing out notifications of death to the families of the deceased, trying to remain as emotionally unavailable as possible while little Jimmy Pocket and his Mom stare at me with tear-filled eyes. No Jimmy, your father isn’t coming home this Christmas. And that really awesome toy you wanted? You won’t be getting that either, because Santa never existed and now your Mom will have to pull double shifts at the diner and sell her body for money nightly just so you can eat canned hot dogs and stay off the street long enough to die with some dignity at age 7, when, following your Mom’s inevitable descent into cocaine and then full-on heroin addiction she’s since developed as a coping mechanism for being ravaged by the local charlatans and bottom-feeders day after day, she will fall asleep with a cigarette in her mouth and burn your house to the ground while you are dreaming of something, anything to remove you from the hellish nightmare your existence has become.
(Dominick Cruz, seen here seconds after being made aware that Dominick Cruz had been injured yet again.)
It just doesn’t end, you guys. It. Doesn’t. Fucking. End.
The insatiable injury curse of 2012 — seemingly fed up with claiming non-injured, active fighters — has somehow grown powerful enough to affect those who were already injured to begin with. NO, IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE.
And while the title may be a little misleading being that bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz didn’t truly re-injure himself, but rather failed to recuperate properly from the ACL injury that has kept him out of action since May, it looks like we won’t be seeing “The Dominator” dominating anything but a Domino’s delivery menu until late 2013 [WORDPLAY]. The newsbroke earlier today that the anterior cruciate ligament Cruz had replaced with that of a cadaver’s following his run on TUF 15 was rejected by his body, forcing the champ to undergo additional surgery in order repair/replace it.
“He’s pissed and disappointed,” remarked Cruz’s trainer Eric Del Fierro, echoing the sentiment of not only MMA fans around the world but that of MMA hack journalists such as myself.
I mean, I’m running out of ways to continue delivering bad news to you guys in this format. Creativity be damned; I feel like a World War 2 messenger at this point, just handing out notifications of death to the families of the deceased, trying to remain as emotionally unavailable as possible while little Jimmy Pocket and his Mom stare at me with tear-filled eyes. No Jimmy, your father isn’t coming home this Christmas. And that really awesome toy you wanted? You won’t be getting that either, because Santa never existed and now your Mom will have to pull double shifts at the diner and sell her body for money nightly just so you can eat canned hot dogs and stay off the street long enough to die with some dignity at age 7, when, following your Mom’s inevitable descent into cocaine and then full-on heroin addiction she’s since developed as a coping mechanism for being ravaged by the local charlatans and bottom-feeders day after day, she will fall asleep with a cigarette in her mouth and burn your house to the ground while you are dreaming of something, anything to remove you from the hellish nightmare your existence has become.
