With just four days left until the King of the Cage invades the MGM Grand in Foxwoods, the promotion is left scrambling to find one its main event fighters or a suitable replacement.

As of yesterday no one from the promotion or Ray Mercer's family has seen or heard from the 49-year-old former world heavyweight boxing champion. Mercer is scheduled to take on Ron Sparks in the main event of KOTC "No Mercy", but at this point his safety is what is most important.

Speaking with KOTC representative Keith Creed multiple times over the weekend, it is apparent that this is out of the norm for Mercer. Creed told me that he may be in the North Philadelphia or New Jersey area spending time with some old friends.

The last anyone had heard from Mercer was before he left to come east in order to prepare for his second career mixed martial arts bout. It is known that Mercer had brought in some training partners who were comparable in size Sparks, although Mercer learned at some point that Sparks is now fighting around 250lbs as opposed to the 300lb range he used to fight in.

The event is the promotions first foray to the east coast as they look to expand and draw in a larger fan base. By selecting Mercer to participate in the main event the executives at KOTC were banking on his 9 second knockout victory over former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia back in June of last year to help sell the event.

Creed said that they first begin to worry when Mercer no-showed a scheduled appearance on MMA Live which is broadcast on ESPN 2. Everything from airline tickets to hotel accommodations had been made for Mercer, but much to the promotion's chagrin, he didn't show up or inform either KOTC or ESPN that he would be unable to make the shows taping.

KOTC will be issuing a press release at some point in the next 24 hours addressing the situation with Mercer if they haven't received any credible information regarding his whereabouts. Creed was waiting on a few more phone calls that may or may not be of any help in locating Mercer.

*Update* Ray Mercer was found alive and well. He had decided to seclude himself during the last legs of training and will be facing Sparks tomorrow night at the MGM Grand in CT.