Did UFC President Dana White have a recent dicey encounter with a black cat or break a mirror lately? Bad luck continues to pile up for the UFC, as injuries have plagued many of their upcoming cards.
Undefeated heavyweight phenom Todd Duffee is the latest fighter to withdraw from an upcoming event due to an injury. An undisclosed injury forced Duffee out of his scheduled heavyweight bout against Paul Buentello at UFC 107 in December.
News of Duffee's injury and withdrawal from UFC 107 was first reported by Sherdog.com. According to the report, up-and-comers Mike Russow and Stefan Struve are the leading candidates to replace Duffee, however, nothing has been made official.
Duffee joins other fighters who have recently withdrawn from upcoming UFC events during the organizations unlucky stretch, which include; Thiago Alves, Mark Coleman, Ricardo Almeida, Kurt Pellegrino, Dong Hyun Kim, Brock Lesnar, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida, among others.
Duffee expressed his disappointment with having to withdrawal in a recent interview with Sherdog.com.
"(Withdrawing) was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make."
Duffee was looking to build off of a record-setting UFC debut, in which he scored an impressive and eye-opening seven-second knockout over Tim Hague at UFC 102 in August. The American Top Team fighter sports an undefeated 5-0 MMA record, with all wins coming by TKO or KO, and he holds a notable win over UFC fighter Assuerio Silva.
Like Duffee, Buentello was looking forward to the fight and is disappointed with Duffee's injury.
"It was a fight I was really looking forward to," said Buentello. "We really matched up well."
Buentello (27-10) returns to the UFC for the first time since a previous stint in the Octagon from Feb. 2005 to Feb. 2006, where he put together an outstanding 3-1 record with the promotion.
Buentello hasn't fought since defeating Kirill Sidelnikov at "Affliction: Day of Reckoning" in January. and is 6-1 in his last seven bouts. His only loss over that span came against Alistair Overeem in a bout that determined the first ever Strikeforce heavyweight title holder in Nov. 2007.
UFC 107 takes place on Dec. 12 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., and the main card airs live on pay-per-view. The event will be headlined by a UFC lightweight title bout between current champ B.J. Penn and top contender Diego Sanchez.
In addition, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will take on Cheick Kongo, and Kenny Florian and Clay Guida will face each other in a lightweight bout with fireworks written all over it.
| (3) Comments
Click here to Register!