UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is suffering from an intestinal bacteria infection, Dana White told the AP yesterday.  Since then, Lesnar has undergone surgery.

This illness is coming off the heels of the case of mononucleosis that he has been plagued with for close to a month.  Lesnar's health issues have caused his fight against top heavyweight contender Shane Carwin to be rescheduled on two occasions.

However, White is still unsure about when the champion will be able to return to the Octagon.

"I don't know," White told MMAJunkie.com.  "I've got to get him to one of these really good hospitals with really good doctors to figure out what's wrong and how we get him better."

But the problem remains with the heavyweight title - what happens to it?  White has been reluctant to answer the question, saying that he will not make any decisions until there is concrete information about Lesnar's health and a pending return date has been issued.

"If it's a long wait," said White, "we're going to have to do something.  The last thing I ever want to do is strip a guy who won a title.  That's the last thing I want to do.  I don't know if we'll have to do an interim or what we'll do to fix it."

Lesnar's toughest, and upcoming, opponent, Carwin, has echoed similar sentiments to White.

"Talk of stripping a man of his title due to illness will set this sport back father then anything Brock has ever said," Carwin wrote on The Underground MMA forum earlier today, referring to Lesnar's post-fight UFC 100 antics.  "We need our Champions healthy and defending.  I know the show will go on but to be a Champion you must beat a Champion."

Even though Carwin is not a friend or fan of Lesnar, as the two have been known to argue and trash talk back and forth, Carwin was genuine in showing respect and giving well wishes to his opponent.

"At the end of the day I can take off my UFC shirt and say here is a man, a Champion that has been brought down by an illness not another man," Carwin wrote.  It is very humbling if you thinking about it.  Brock has a wife, kid and friends that depend on him to make their lives better.  You do not have to support Brock and his antics but you should have respect for the human side of what is happening here."

Carwin also stated that Lesnar's illness and subsequent fight delays were not a gimmick by the UFC to hype the Lesnar vs. Carwin fight.

"This is not a ploy to sell more tickets," he said.  "[Brock] is the biggest draw this sport has ever had.  This is not him ducking me or any other fighter.  This is about a man who is fighting an illness for his career, family and friends."