Move over, UFC 108. The new champ is heading toward the finish line.
And it's probably hobbling down the home stretch on crutches. Next week's UFC 149 pay-per-view, like UFC 108 in January 2010, has been decimated by injuries and fight changes.
UFC president Dana White on Thursday told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) he believes the card is the most injury-riddled in company history.
"I'd say this one wins," White said. "This is the winner. We lost nine to injury and we had to move two other fights. So I would say, yes, this was the craziest card of all time."
Where the UFC is drawing a little criticism – albeit mostly for fighter training injuries, something beyond its control – is that UFC 149 was a quick sell-out in a brand-new market in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. And the finished card for July 21 – assuming no one else is forced out over the next week – looks very different from how it looked when tickets went on sale.
The card was supposed to be headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion Jose Aldo and top contender Erik Koch with Michael Bisping-Tim Boetsch as the co-main event. But Aldo was forced out with an injury and, later, so was Bisping thanks to surgery.
The UFC looked to one of its most popular fighters, Urijah Faber, for a rescue and moved his interim bantamweight title fight against Renan Barao to the main event at UFC 149 from a co-headlining spot at UFC 148. And former Bellator middleweight champ Hector Lombard was moved in to fight Boetsch for Bisping.
But while UFC 108 had near double digits in fight changes, as well, the big names that have had to leave the Calgary card certainly trump 108 in Las Vegas: Aldo, Bisping, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Thiago Silva, Yoshihiro Akiyama and Thiago Alves, to name a few.
But the changes are nothing White and the UFC brass don't deal with on a weekly basis – though perhaps never as much all at once on the same card.
"I think if you look at our track record, when things fall apart we put the cards back together," White said. "… We've never been to Calgary, it's our first time there, and the fact of the matter is, we do always deliver. … And I'll tell you this right now: Most of the people who live in Calgary have never seen the UFC live. We're coming. And you think you like what you see on TV? Wait till you see this live event. Our fighters always deliver."
Along with the interim bantamweight title tilt between Faber and Barao and the Lombard-Boetsch fight, which could have important title implications in the middleweight division, fans in Calgary will see a heavyweight bout between Cheick Kongo and Shawn Jordan. And all six preliminary-card fights feature, appropriately, a Canadian for local fans to get behind.
White said that while the changes are an unfortunate byproduct of the fight business, it doesn't change the UFC's intentions with what it ultimately brings to the table.
"I wanted to see all those guys fight, too, but it didn't happen," White said. "Urijah Faber wanted to fight last week in Vegas, and that didn't work out, either. Urijah Faber left that card to come fight in Calgary. (Fans) don't want to see Urijah Faber? You don't want to see Hector Lombard? You don't want to see Renan Barao?
"Who got stung in this thing was a lot of scalpers. If you're a UFC fan and you bought a ticket to Calgary, you're going to get exactly what you paid for. You're going to see a great show and you're going to see some kick-ass fights."
UFC 149 takes place at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Main-card fights, including the Faber-Barao headliner, air on pay-per-view, while prelims air on FX and Facebook.
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