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Injuries Hurt UFC 149 Fight Card, Calgary Fans Upset

UFC 149 is scheduled to take place on July 21st at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Canada.  The fight card has been changed, then rearranged, then switched, it’s just been pretty difficult for the promotion to have a set lineup when fighters keep acquiring injuries.  Not only is the UFC upset with these unexpected changes, but so are the Calgary fans who already purchased their tickets in advance thinking they’d see the fighters that were originally advertised.

Here are the fight card changes due to fighter injuries:

  • Jose Aldo was expected to face Erik Koch on July 21, 2012 at UFC 149.  However, Aldo was forced out of the fight due to an injury so the bout was postponed.
  • The bout between Michael Bisping and Tim Boetsch, originally scheduled for UFC 148, was moved to UFC 149 to help shape up the fight card.  However, Bisping was forced out of the bout with an injury and was replaced by longtime Bellator champion Hector Lombard.
  • Yoshihiro Akiyama was expected to face Thiago Alves at this event, but was forced to pull out of the fight due to injury and replaced by Siyar Bahadurzada.
  • On June 1, Thiago Alves pulled out of the bout due to an injury.  He was replaced by Chris Clements who will now face Bahadurzada.
  • Thiago Silva was expected to face Maurício ‘Shogun’ Rua at the event.  However, Silva was forced out of the bout with an injury.
  • Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua was removed from the entire event and will now headline the UFC on FOX 4 main event against Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera.
  • UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo was scheduled to defend his title against Erik Koch as part of the main event.  Aldo was forced to drop this bout due to an injury and now UFC 149 will be headlined by Urijah Faber vs Renan Barao.
Current UFC 149 Main Fight Card (aired on PPV):
  • Urijah Faber vs Renan Barao
  • Hector Lombard vs Tim Boetsch
  • Cheick Kongo vs Shawn Jordan
  • Chris Clements vs Siyar Bahadurzada
Current UFC 149 Preliminary Fight Card (aired on FX):
  • Court McGee vs Nick Ring
  • Ryan Jimmo vs Anthony Perosh
  • Bryan Caraway vs Mitch Gagnon
  • George Roop vs Antonio Carvalho
  • Mitch Clarke vs Anton Kuivanen
  • Claude Patrick vs James Head

Many of the Calgary fans who purchased UFC 149 tickets were upset and they expressed their emotions via social media sites.  We can summarize most of the Tweets and Facebook messages with what one that we found, one person stated “I’m pretty irritated. We lost another one, what are we going to do now? There’s maybe two names we know of on this card out of 10 fighters in the main events.”

UFC spokesman Steve Keogh responded to some of the fan complaints:

“Injuries are a part of the sport and top level talent will still be competing.  I understand where (the fans) are coming from but at the same time, when you’re looking at some of these names … Hector Lombard, he’s been a longtime middleweight champion for Bellator.  It’s said he could be the next Anderson Silva and dethrone Anderson Silva.  Renan Barao, this guy has the meanest streak going in mixed martial arts and he hasn’t been beat since 2005.  Yes some of these names aren’t as well known, but at the same time we are more than confident they will deliver.”

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