The UFC has dealt with fighters suffering injuries and undergoing surgeries thoughout the years, which has forced the North American organization to change fight cards even with short notice. However, matchmaker Joe Silva and UFC President Dana White seem to have been doing a great job to substitute canceled fights. Although many MMA fans may disagree with this, Dana White strongly feels that the UFC always provides a card stacked with great fights every single time.
UFC 108 has been plagued with numerous injuries, with multiple potential fights being called off as a result. A proposed main event featured UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva facing off against former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort. However, it was announced by Silva’s manager Ed Soares that the fight will not happen at UFC 108 because Silva will not be fully healed from elbow surgery.
A bout between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin for the UFC Heavyweight Championship was rescheduled from UFC 106 to UFC 108, but this fight will not take place due to a continuing illness of Lesnar. The bout between Gabriel Gonzaga and Junior dos Santos was called off on November 25th, due to Gonzaga suffering from a Staph Infection. Paul Daley was scheduled to face Carlos Condit but on December 9th, it was announced that Condit had pulled out due to injury. On December 11th, Tyson Griffin pulled out of his bout with Jim Miller due to an injury sustained during training and Martin Kampmann vs. Rory Markham was also called off days later after a knee injury.
The winner of a bout between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cain Velasquez was to be guaranteed a title shot for the UFC Heavyweight Championship against the eventual winner of Lesnar vs. Carwin. The planned bout was later scrapped when Nogueira was forced to pull out of the fight due to a severe case of staph infection. A possible Velasquez vs. Carwin match for an interim belt has been ruled out as a new main event due to Carwin undergoing knee surgery. The list goes on and on…
From UFC President Dana White:
“In almost 10 years this stuff has never happened. [But] it’s part of the business. Trust me bro, guys getting injured and falling off, I got bigger problems than that everyday. Guess what, it’s our job to make other fights…. If you’re a fight fan and want to see good fights, how many bad fights have we really put on?… Our business hasn’t been affected one bit. If you’re a fight fan, I don’t know how you don’t think that that card is a great card…. Do we have the card stacked with all those A-list guys? No, but it’s a card stacked with great fights.”
