Less than 24 hours after Cain Velasquez pulled out of the UFC 196 main event due to an injury, heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum has also pulled out of the event due to an injury.
The decision to pull out of the event was announced by Werdum on Monday and this comes following UFC President Dana White announcing on Sunday evening that Stipe Miocic would be replacing Velasquez against Werdum in the main event of UFC 196.
In an article posted by Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting on Monday afternoon, Werdum explained why he was pulling out of the event and how soon he may be able to return to defend the UFC heavyweight title.
“I was already injured. I have a foot injury, and haven’t been able to throw kicks in training for two weeks. I would still fight Cain because I was injured the last time, but I also hurt my back last Friday. I went to the doctor, tried to continue training, but couldn’t spar as I should spar.
I decided not to fight because I’m not 100 percent. If Cain was the opponent, I would go on. It’s not his fault, it’s nobody’s fault. Injuries happen. You can’t avoid them. I have no option. I made this decision because I’m not feeling 100 percent.”
I made this decision together with my team. We decided not to fight. Cain can’t fight. I was going to hide the injury one more time, like I always did. I tried to hide it, but couldn’t this time. I can’t fight if I’m not 100 percent to put on a show like I always did.”
It took me a long time to get here and win this belt, be the champion, to throw everything away because I’m not 100 percent. I have to think about everything now, I can’t think and act like I did when I was 20. It’s not like that anymore. Everything changed. I’m 38 now, and I feel I’m at the best moment of my career, and I can’t risk my career because of pride.”
As of Monday afternoon, the UFC has not issued a statement on next week’s UFC 196 pay-per-view slated for the MGM Grand Garden Arena and the current fight card is below.
Main Card: (PPV – 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT)
Johny Hendericks (17-3) vs. Stephen Thompson (11-1)
Roy Nelson (21-12) vs. Jared Rosholt (14-2)
Ovince Saint Preux (18-7) vs. Rafael Cavalcante (12-6, 1NC)
Joseph Benavidez (23-4) vs. Zach Makovsky (19-6)
Preliminary Card: (FS1 – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Josh Burkman (28-12, 1NC) vs. KJ Noons (12-7, 1NC)
Derrick Lewis (13-4, 1NC) vs. Damian Grabowski (20-2)
Mike Pyle (26-11-1) vs. Sean Spencer (12-4)
Misha Cirkunov (10-2) vs. Alex Nicholson (6-1)
Preliminary Card: (UFC Fight Pass – 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m PT)
Mickey Gall (1-0) vs. Mike Jackson (11-10)
Artem Lobov (12-11, 1NC) vs. Alex White (10-2)
Ray Borg (9-1) vs. Justin Scoggins (10-2)
Noad Lahat (9-1) vs. Diego Rivas (6-0)