The UFC yesterday announced scratches to a few upcoming fights that you will want to know about. The first is the cancellation of a light heavyweight bout between Thiago Silva and Ovince St-Preux, which was set to take place at UFC Fight Night 35 in January in Georgia. According to the UFC, Silva is out of the fight and St-Preux will get a new opponent and stay on the card. The fight was just announced on Wednesday, so I don’t understand this situation whatsoever. If Silva was injured, why did he accept the fight? Or did the UFC just book him for the fight assuming he was healthy, just as they did with the cancelled Alexander Gustafsson vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira match? This is the third time in the last month that a situation like this has occurred, with the other being the postponement of Glover Teixeira vs. Jon Jones (actually, that was postponed twice). I just don’t understand how this has happened three times in so short a span after not having happened for a long time before that. Perhaps the UFC’s fax machine is broken or something, I’m not sure, but hopefully they can figure out why this keeps happening because it’s unacceptable to both the fighters and to the fans. Oh, and one more thing: why the heck did the UFC book Silva vs. St-Preux as the co-main event for that Georgia card? When you look at it that way, this scrapped fight could be a blessing in disguise for everyone. Del Rosario, Inocente Injured The other scrapped bout is a heavyweight bout between Shane Del Rosario and Guto Inocente, which was set to take place at the year-end UFC 168 card. Del Rosario pulled out of the fight earlier this week with an injury, and yesterday Inocente pulled out with an injury himself, and thus he will not fight a replacement opponent. This is disappointing news for both Del Rosario and Inocente, who are both clinging to roster spots and in dire need of a win. With Del Rosario, he is coming off of two-straight T/KO losses and is only on the UFC roster because they are in dire need of heavyweights. As for Inocente, he has been injured for over a year and a half and hasn’t been able to make his UFC debut yet coming off of an impressive performance in Strikeforce. Because this fight was scrapped, it’s possible the UFC will add one more fight to the UFC 168 card, as it currently stands with only 11 fights. Looking at the roster, I’m not exactly who would get booked on short notice, but perhaps there is a fighter or two the UFC owes a fight to before the end of the year is up and they will want to make a little extra cash. We’ll see.
