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Black Friday: Matt Serra out of UFC 79
By Zach Arnold | November 23, 2007
Just when you thought the momentum was swinging in a negative direction comes news that Matt Serra has had to pull out of his UFC 79 fight against Matt Hughes due to a back injury. The Grinch has made an early appearance to try to ruin Christmas.
But don’t worry, Dana White says that Chuck Liddell is “by far” the most popular MMA fighter in the world. Let’s see him draw a big buyrate now on 12/29, brother.
Ranting and raving about Sherdog reporting rumors of Fedor vs. Choi Hong-Man. As I said a couple of days ago on this web site, the rumor of Fedor/Choi had been known by people like me for two weeks. This was not exactly the most earthshattering of news items, so trying to place heat on Greg Savage of Sherdog is pretty silly, especially considering that Hong-Man will face Jerome Le Banner on 12/8 at Yokohama Arena. If a so-called ‘leak’ on Sherdog (that few people in Japan knew about) really damaged a potential deal between M-1/PRIDE and Hong-Man, then there wasn’t much substance to the proposed fight in the first place.
ABC News has an article on the rise of MMA. Luke Thomas is absolutely angry about the ABC article.
Rob McCullough vs. Jamie Varner for the upcoming WEC show in February has been booked.
A profile article on Cage Rage’s upcoming 12/1 event at Wembley Arena.
Mark Hunt has been booked at the last minute for the Hustle Mania 11/25 Yokohama Arena event. Glad to see that Hustle has no ties still with PRIDE’s past. Will Hunt end up being Fedor’s opponent on 12/31?
Topics: Canada, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, UK, WEC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
If Rampage faces Forrest in the next TUF, and there isn’t an ulterior motive (Rampage not being able to fight again until summer anyway) that will show that Dana hasn’t learned his lesson.
Tuf should never again revolve around a title defense. At most, it should be a matchup for #1 contender status.
I agree.
I think Hughes vs Fitch would be a good replacement..
Hughes against GSP, Fitch, or Koscheck would easily be a sufficient replacement. I know it wouldn’t be for a title, but I would be more excited for one of those fights then the Hughes/Serra fight.
I don’t think they will match Hughes up with a huge threat and threaten the Serra vs Hughes title fight that they invested so much time in.
Does anyone know how long it usually takes for a person to get well from an injury like Serras?
Btw, The M-1 russia thing being mad at the press (Sherdog)… It must be still a chock for the russian this whole free press thingy ;).
Pontus, they just said that he suffered a hernaited disc. The treatment (and the recovery time) depends on how severe the injury is. It usually starts with bed rest (and painkillers), before moving on to non-steroidical anti-inflammatory medication, if the injury is mild to moderate. If the pain is much stronger they’re injecting and anti-inflammatory steroid directly into the spine (which i had done earlier in the year, not too pleasant…). And then it’s usually off to phsysical therapy (massages, heat/cold therapy, electro stimulation etc), mixed with additional pain medication and muscle relaxants. If your injury falls into this category it can take between 4 and 6 weeks until you’re more or less back at normal.
But the injury can also be so bad that you need surgery, and in that case it really takes a long time. You can get a new lumbar disc, they can remove an intervertebral disc, a vertebra and on and on. Something like that can put you out of action for up to a year, and could even end your career.
My guess is Serra falls into the first category, since he was able to get on the MRI table (even if he couldn’t get off it), i couldn’t even do that, since the disc pinched my sciatic nerve, and i wasn’t even able to walk properly.
Here’s to a speedy recovery of The Terror!
You mean The Terra?
Fitch says no:
http://mmamania.com/2007/11/23/jon-fitch-im-not-fighting-matt-hughes-at-ufc-79/
“MMAmania.com (www.mmamania.com) can confirm that Fitch is not available to fight that weekend. In fact, he told us today, “I’m not even going to be in the country. I’ll be in Vietnam tending to some personal matters.””
Alves?
I highly doubt they will have Hughes fight. They’ll just wait til Serra is ready to do the matchup. UFC title picture is a mess.
I agree with Zack. I think Zuffa’s first inclination is to have Hughes and GSP wait Serra’s injury out, but it all depends on how long Serra’s recovery takes.
If it looks like Serra will be on the shelf for an extended period of time, I think they’ll go ahead with Hughes/GSP 3 before any other matchup, and then have the winner fight Serra. If Serra looks to be out for the *really* long time (like 12 mos, let’s say), Hughes/GSP 3 would be for another one of those “interim” titles.
In the meantime, the rest of the WW guys will be able to sort themselves out and one will be ready for a title shot soon after Hughes/GSP/Serra gets sorted out.
While I would prefer Hughes against Kosheck or GSP, I think a fight with Alves would be interesting. Now, if Alves can’t stop his takedowns with at least some success, the fight would stink. But if he can block some of those shots, it could turn out to be a war.
I think 2007 has really taught Zuffa a huge lesson. That it is impossible to line things up in MMA.
HW: Mirko Filipovic
LHW: Liddell losing to Jardine
MW: Posterboy Franklin losing to Silva again.
WW: The Hughes/Serra delays
LW: Sherk drug test
What this basically means is that when fights are available to make happen, they need to happen ASAP. Trying to delay fights for TV production is a bad idea. Trying to build up fights by giving them “give me” fights is a bad idea.
And while some unexpected things have benefited the UFC (Forrest beating Rua), the majority of the things have not.
45 you have some nice ‘things’ to say. You could pursue writing but you should try being more descriptive and articulate. “And while some unexpected events” opposed to using the word things. I agree with you.