One of the fights at UFC on FOX 4 this Saturday night was supposed to be Ben Rothwell taking on Travis Browne, but Rothwell had to pull out of the fight with an injury.
UFC President Dana White said today during the UFC on FOX 4 media call that they attempted to have Matt Mitrione replace Rothwell against Browne, but Mitrione was not in shape to take the fight.
“Mitrione, we called him and he jumped into the gym,” White said. “He tried to figure out what type of shape he was in and he didn’t feel that he was in good enough shape to take the fight. We tried to save that fight and we couldn’t.”
Mitrione (5-1) was scheduled to compete on the preliminary card of UFC on FOX 4, but his fight was cancelled after his opponent Rob Broughton has issues with his visa. The former Ultimate Fighter contestant told Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com that he learned five weeks prior that his fight with Broughton was not going to happen.
It was also reported by various outlets that the UFC was looking into having Browne fight former Strikeforce heavyweight Devin Cole, but they did not put him in the fight because of previous issues away from the cage.
With Browne (13-0-1) off the UFC on FOX 4 fight card, the UFC worked quickly to find him a new opponent and the organization announced last week that he would headline UFC on FX 5 against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva on October 5th in Minnesota.
Since entering the UFC, Browne has gone 4-0-1 and three of his four wins have come by stoppage. His most recent victory came at UFC 145 in April when he defeated Chad Griggs by an arm triangle choke submission in the first round.