SCRAP SHOTS
Whitaker out, Romero in vs. Rockhold ... Hall’s weight cutting went awry ... Bisping says no way he’d fight detested Belfort ... Jimmy Smith brings his calls to UFC
For a second there, it felt like order had been restored in the UFC’s middleweight division.
It’s about to get complicated again, though.
This weekend, the UFC announced the 185pound champion Robert
Whittaker was removed from his headlining fight against Luke Rockhold at next month’s UFC 221 card due to an injury.
“This card meant so much to me and I’m devastated for not being able to fight,” Whittaker said in a statement released on Instagram. “All I can do is focus on getting healthy to come back better than ever.”
With the Australian champ out, the card’s main event will instead feature Rockhold taking on Yoel
Romero for an interim middleweight title.
Suddenly, we’re right back to where we started a couple months ago.
Whittaker was declared the UFC’s undisputed middleweight champion in early December after Canadian icon Georges St.
Pierre vacated the belt that he’d won by beating thenchamp Michael Bisping a month earlier at UFC 217.
After almost 18 months of uncertainty spurred by Bisping’s inaction — or unwillingness to fight top contenders, if you’re a cynic — the fight game was finally able to move on.
Whittaker, the longtime interim champ, was officially middleweight king, and the UFC paired him up to fight in his native Australia against Rockhold, a former champion who lost the belt to Bisping when he got too cocky in the octagon.
Now, that’s all off the table, and instead we’ll have two champions walking around at middleweight again.
It’s not ideal, but the Rockhold-Romero matchup is a fun one and if Whittaker’s able to come back by the summer fight fans will still be able to feel like the division’s in better shape than it was a couple of months ago.
There’s nothing to get too upset about, but it sure feels like the 185-pound weight class has been cursed for the last little while.
BRUTAL CUT
Weight-cutting was yet again thrown into the spotlight this weekend when the UFC’s Sunday night event in St. Louis lost its co-main event.
On Saturday, it was announced that Uriah
Hall had withdrawn from his fight with Vitor Belfort due to complications with his weight cut.
According to MMAFighting.com reporter
Ariel Helwani, Hall stayed in the hospital overnight after fainting on his way to the official weigh-ins.
Fighters who cut weight are often severely dehy- drated and starve themselves before they step on the scale, so this type of incident is more common than it should be, but the severity of Hall’s troubles were still shocking.
It’s a blow for the UFC, too, as Sunday’s card featured an intriguing headliner between Dooho Choi and Jeremy Stephens, along with a handful of other fights that are interesting for hardcore fans but might not attract many casuals.
The Hall-Belfort matchup was meant to be one of the main draws, especially with Belfort declaring that it would be the final time he stepped into the octagon after a long and storied career.
NOT SO QUICK
Soon after his fight with Hall was cancelled, rumours emerged that the UFC might book Belfort to take on Bisping at the March 17 event in London, England.
The card doesn’t currently feature a headliner and the UFC would surely love to put the greatest Brit- ish fighter of all-tim, Bisping, up against one of its longesttenured stars, Belfort, in one of the world’s great cities.
Want added intrigue? Well, Belfort’s not alone in eyeing retirement, as Bisping has been suggesting that he had only one last fight left in him since before he lost the middleweight title to St. Pierre in November.
It all sounded too good to be true, and it was.
Bisping spoke with MMAFighting.com and told Helwani that there was no way he would consider fighting Belfort, who he’s regularly called-out for allegedly abusing performance enhancing drugs.
“I detest Vitor,” Bisping said. “Do not want to be associated with him in the slightest.”
AROUND THE OCTAGON
Longtime Bellator colour commentator Jimmy Smith signed a deal to call fights for the UFC on Friday. This was a no-brainer in every sense of the term. Smith is a seasoned pro who is knowledgeable about the sport and knows how to ramp up the excitement during a fight. Quality MMA broadcasters don’t exactly grow on trees, so it’s hard not to like this move for the UFC ... Bellator, of course, signed veteran referee John McCarthy to call fights for their broadcast team. He’s unproven, but anyone who has ever talked with the guy knows there might not be anyone with more knowledge about MMA than McCarthy ... Can the UFC get Hakeem Dawodu a fight, please? The Calgarian signed with the promotion late last year to a lot of fanfare among those who follow Canadian MMA, and it would sure be nice to finally get to watch him fight in the sport’s biggest promotion.