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UFC Featherweight Eddie Yagin Hospitalized With Swelling Around Brain; Fight With Dennis Siver Scrapped

(Photo via UFC.com)

Two scary injuries in one day? It looks like The Curse That Shall Not Be Named has awoken from its brief slumber.

The UFC’s latest injury victim is featherweight Eddie Yagin, who was hospitalized on Sunday for swelling around his brain, and will be unable to fight Dennis Siver at UFC on Fox 5: Henderson vs Diaz (December 8th, Seattle). MMAWeekly has the details:

The problem started on Saturday after a usual day of training, Yagin’s manager, Jason House, told MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday.

“He came home after practice, had a headache, started to vomit whatever liquids he drank and then decided to go to the ER the next day,” said House, adding that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred in training. Yagin hadn’t been knocked out or suffered from any particularly hard blows or anything of the sort.

(Photo via UFC.com)

Two scary injuries in one day? It looks like The Curse That Shall Not Be Named has awoken from its brief slumber.

The problem started on Saturday after a usual day of training, Yagin’s manager, Jason House, told MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday.

Yagin’s family told House that there is blood around his brain that is causing swelling, thus, putting pressure on his brain, but they were told by his doctor that he believes surgery won’t be necessary, that the swelling should go down on its own in the coming days.

House stressed that he has yet to converse with Yagin’s doctors himself, but expects that Yagin will be in the hospital for at least the next few days to monitor his condition.

Yagin last competed at UFC 145 in April, where he won a split-decision over Mark Hominick in a Fight of the Night performance. He was originally slated to return against Siver at UFC 151 on September 1st, but that event was canceled, and the bout was bumped to December. So let’s all hope that 1) Yagin makes a full, swift recovery, and 2) that Siver gets a replacement opponent, because the dude is getting seriously jerked around lately.

Cung Le’s Foot Is Still Jacked-Up Heading Into ‘UFC Macau’ Fight With Rich Franklin

(“Whoa, tiger-claws, huh? Alright! Well, see ya later.”)

Despite regular treatments of…ugh…bloodletting?…Cung Le‘s right foot is still not fully recovered from the injury he received during his victory over Patrick Cote at UFC 148. That’s a problem, considering that his main event bout against Rich Franklin at UFC Macau (aka UFC China aka UFC on FUEL 6) is only nine days away. But as he told Ariel Helwani recently on The MMA Hour, the importance of competing in China is worth the danger of fighting hurt. Or at least that’s what he’d like us to believe:

“I would say [my foot is] 80% now. I’ve kicked a couple of my training partners in the head, [and] it still hurt a little bit, but I’m hoping by the time the fight comes on it’ll be 100 percent…whether I’m 80 or 100, I’m gonna fight…if [this fight] wasn’t in Macau, China, I’d give myself the right amount of time so my foot could really heal…I feel like martial arts basically started from China and my roots are the Chinese martial arts, and of course the UFC needed me to fight…I was not even cleared yet, [and Dana White] was like, ‘Cung’s gonna fight.’ So, a little bit of pressure, but pressure’s good.”

(“Whoa, tiger-claws, huh? Alright! Well, see ya later.”)

Injured foot or not, Le was the most credible option to have an Asian (preferably non-Japanese) face headline the UFC’s first show in China, so he kind of had to go through with it. But in light of his difficult recovery, the danger is that he’ll put on a lackluster performance which could turn off local fans. We touched on this a little yesterday — the UFC’s emphasis on “hometown heroes” headlining international events sounds perfectly logical, but the strategy might not be as effective as simply putting on a badass fight between exciting (and healthy) stars in the main event, no matter what part of the world they’re from.

Side note: When a fighter admits that a part of their body is “80%” before a fight, you can automatically downgrade that to like 50%, at best. If you haven’t put cash on Ace yet, you might want to consider it.

By the Way, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Kicked Dave Herman’s Ass With a Broken Rib

(“You know what else doesn’t work on me? Left hooks to the fa-DAMN IT!” / Photo via Inovafoto)

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is the oldest 36-year-old in the history of humanity. And while he came into his UFC 153 fight against Dave Herman as a more-than 2-1 favorite, he didn’t inspire much confidence at the weigh-ins, where he dragged his way up to the stage, shook Arianny Celeste‘s hand (perhaps mistaking her for Burt Watson?), used his brother to brace himself while taking off his wind pants, removed his shirt to reveal a noticeably soft midsection, then limped his way to the staredown.

As it turns out, there’s a reason why Big Nog may have looked even more decrepit than usual that weekend (via MMAConvert):

Former interim UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fought Dave Herman at UFC 153 with a fractured rib. Nogueira suffered the injury a week into training for the short notice bout with Herman in Brazil. “Fractured my rib three weeks ago on my right side,” said Nogueira, in an interview with SporTV. “I went to the doctor, took a local anesthetic to be able to train.”

(“You know what else doesn’t work on me? Left hooks to the fa-DAMN IT!” / Photo via Inovafoto)

As it turns out, there’s a reason why Big Nog may have looked even more decrepit than usual that weekend (via MMAConvert):

With a redemptive armbar victory over a jackass in his home country — and after a two-year stretch that saw him undergo surgery on two knees, a hip, and an arm, not to mention countless smaller injuries including the aforementioned rib — you’d think this might be a good moment for Nogueira to step away from the sport like a hero, without risking any more long-lasting damage to his body. Obviously, that’s not happening, and Nogueira is asking for a top-ten opponent in his next appearance. Jesus, man, what’s it gonna take? Are you really going to keep fighting until your entire body looks like that hole in your back?

Our suggestion: Feed Nog #1 light-heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen, after Sonnen inevitably crashes and burns against Jon Jones. Unless Nogueira wants a top-ten heavyweight, in which case we got nothin’.

Gabriel Gonzaga Loses His UFC 153 Dance Partner, As Geronimo dos Santos Withdraws on Short Notice

(Just some more surrealist video art via gonzagabjj)

Gabriel Gonzaga hasn’t just been affected by the UFC injury curse — he is the UFC injury curse, in all of its weird permutations. The decision-phobic heavyweight originally found his way back into the Octagon as an injury replacement against Edinaldo Oliveira in January. Then, he had to drop off the chaotic UFC 146 card due to an injury. And now, he’s lost his scheduled opponent at next weekend’s UFC 153 card in Rio, after UFC officials confirmed that Geronimo Dos Santos would be unable to compete. Was Geronimo’s withdrawal injury-related? I don’t know. You tell me.

UFC officials haven’t yet confirmed whether they’ll be finding a replacement opponent for Gonzaga on the “Silva vs. Bonnar” card. As MMAJunkie suggests, Gonzaga would theoretically be available to serve as the replacement opponent for Daniel Cormier at the Strikeforce event on November 3rd, which would be better than nothing, I guess. We’ll update you when we know more.

(Just some more surrealist video art via gonzagabjj)

Shane Carwin Suffers Minor Knee Injury; TUF Coaches’ Curse Averted…For Now

(“Welp, that’s the last time I try to use left-handed scissors.”)

From Tito’s neck to Lensar’s gut to Cruz’s knee to Belfort’s hand, injuries to TUF coaches have become the rule lately, not the exception. And Shane Carwin nearly became the latest name on that list after injuring his knee in training. According to MMA Weekly, Carwin suffered no major tears or damage to his knee, but it was enough to prevent him from traveling to England this weekend for a scheduled autograph signing.

As of now, Carwin is still scheduled to face rival Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale on December 15th. But as Dan Henderson and Jose Aldo recently demonstrated, sometimes fighters try to tough out their injuries until the last possible moment, before dropping out when reality sets in. And since Carwin already withdrew from a UFC 125 fight against Roy Nelson, and because he’s spent much of the last two years recovering from neck and back surgeries, the appeal of just getting in there and throwing down against a guy you can’t stand must be overwhelming.

While we certainly hope that’s not the case, and that Carwin is close to 100% by December, this is the 2012 UFC Injury Curse we’re talking about — Carwin’s knee could merely be a red herring for the horrid fate that lies in store for Roy Nelson.

(“Welp, that’s the last time I try to use left-handed scissors.”)

17 Outdated UFC Posters: A Depressing Retrospective

Being the poster-designer for the UFC must be a horrible job. You spend all day selecting the perfect photos of each headliner, tweaking size and shading until they’re juuuuust right, and then you get a frantic phone call from your boss just as you’re leaving for the weekend, saying that so-and-so blew out his such-and-such, and it’s time to start over.

Case in point, check out the poster above. For a brief moment between UFC 151 being canceled and Jones vs. Belfort being booked, some poor bastard actually had to make a Jones vs. Machida 2 poster, and Lyoto Machida hadn’t even accepted the fight. I’m not saying a lot of time was spent on this, I’m saying that no matter how long it took, that time could have been better spent napping.

We’ve compiled a lot more outdated UFC posters in the pages below. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be reminded of great fights that were sunk due to injury, and of the fragility of human ACLs. If we’ve left out any good ones, shoot us some links in the comments section.

(UFC 3: The empty promise that started it all. Though they were matched up on the poster, neither Royce Gracie nor Ken Shamrock made it to the finals of the event’s eight-man tournament.)

(The infamous “Kevin Randleman accidentally knocks himself out backstage” event. UFC 24 lost its main event on the shortest of short notice, though Randleman and Rizzo would fight two events later.)

(If Mark Coleman was able drag his ass to the cage that night, then Josh Koscheck really had no excuse. Still, this was one of those times where injuries actually made the main card a little more interesting.)

(Wiman and Danzig got injured in the same week, and Belcher had to withdraw due to eye problems. UFC Fight Night 22′s new main event was…interesting?)

(Isn’t it bad luck to have twins on the same fight card? It was in this case, as Big Nog had to drop out due to a hip injury. Mirko Cro Cop came in to replace Nogueira for a “Fight of the Year, Just Kidding” candidate against Mir.)