UFC Fight News 2016: After Cain Velasquez Pullout, Fabricio Werdum Withdraws from UFC 196 with His Own Injury
UFC 196 is supposed to be one of the biggest fight cards for the Ultimate Fighting Championship this year. After all, it pits two of the most prolific heavyweights in mixed martial arts as the main event. But what if both fighter back out?
Well, that is exactly what happened in a span of two days, with the earlier news that Cain Velasquez pulled out due to an injury, and followed up by pullout of the champion, Fabricio Werdum, who also claimed that he also is injured. The whirlwind of events is certainly a big blow to Dana White's promotion.
It was White who announced that top contender Velasquez was pulling out due to a back injury, while at the same time announcing that a replacement in the person of Stipe Miocic was going to step in for him to challenge Werdum for the title. However, Werdum surprised everyone by announcing a day later that he also is pulling out because of an injury that was already known to them during training.
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Werdum alleged that he has a foot injury that caused him to be unable to throw kicks for two weeks. But what's really interesting is that he admitted to have ignored the injury if he was to fight Velasquez. Now that his original opponent is out, he no longer has the reason to continue with the fight.
The clear victim here is Miocic, who has gone from being the top heavyweight contender to becoming a fighter looking for any available fight out there in less than a day.
There are only two weeks left before the event, dubbed as the UFC's annual Super Bowl weekend card, and there is utmost uncertainty as to what fight will fill in as the main event. It is also impossible to pull out some of the UFC's biggest stars to put them to this card. For one, Conor McGregor and Holly Holm are scheduled to fight for UFC 197, while TJ Dillashaw and Dominick Cruz still have fresh wounds in their fight barely two weeks ago.
