Cain Velasquez Injured. Fabricio Werdum vs. Mark Hunt For The Interim Belt

[Naj85]

Mexico City, Mexico - The UFC^® announced today that UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez suffered a right knee injury during training and was forced to withdraw from his championship fight against No.1 contender Fabricio Werdum in Mexico City on November 15.
As a result, No.4 heavyweight Mark Hunt (10-8-1 in professional MMA, fighting out of Auckland, New Zealand), who is coming off a walk-away knockout against the iron-chinned Roy Nelson in Tokyo in September (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGunUlEd50A), will face Werdum (18-5-1, fighting out of Los Angeles via Porto Alegre, Brazil) in the five-round main event for the interim UFC heavyweight title.
“I’m so unbelievably disappointed that this happened,” Velasquez said. “To say I was looking forward to fighting in Mexico for the first time is an understatement. I wanted to fight on that card so bad. Looks like it wasn’t meant to be and it’s not going to happen. I’m going to get my [right] knee fixed and get back to training as soon as I can. I’m sorry to the fans in Mexico who were expecting this fight, and I hope to be able to come down and still be a part of this historic event.”
For Werdum, it was never about Cain, it was always about the title.
“I’m ready for whatever comes. I have been training in Mexico for nearly two months and accept the challenge that is presented to me. I'll continue to prepare and will arrive ready to fight on behalf of all my Latin American fans," said Werdum.
Mark Hunt, never one to shy away from a big opportunity, wasted no time accepting a dream opportunity to fight for UFC gold.
“I feel blessed to have this opportunity to fight for another world title. This is something that doesn’t happen often to people. First K1 and now UFC – how can I say no, even though it’s on short notice? I’m dropping everything and flying to Mexico tomorrow so I can best prepare myself for this fight. I have to get into shape and acclimatize to that environment, which is really important.
“There’s nothing to lose when you’re competing against the best at the top level,” Hunt added.
UFC 180: WERDUM vs. HUNT scheduled for November 15 at the Arena Mexico City, sold-out in only eight hours, and will welcome more than 20,000 fans. Along with the explosive main event, fans will also be treated to six other bouts featuring Latin American contenders.
For more information visit www.ufcnetwork.com. All bouts are live and subject to change.


UFC ticket refund policy
Due to causes beyond our company's control, there has been a change in the main event of UFC 180 and Cain Velasquez will no longer be participating. For customers who wish to request a refund the times to do so will be from October 28th to November 7th 2014, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. CT.
For purchases made with a credit card and/or debit card, please go to the box office of Arena Ciudad de Mexico with the following documents:
* Card with which the purchase was made. Original and copy
* Official identification. Original and Copy
* Tickets.
Purchases in CASH, OXXO, ELEKTRA, PALACIO DE HIERRO's CARD through Superboletos reimbursements will be made at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico box office only from October 28 to November 7, 2014, please submit:
* Tickets.
* Official identification. Original and Copy
Foreign clients
For customers who are foreign refund dynamic is as follows, you must send your scanned tickets to the following e-mail address: [email protected] with the title "UFC refund", submitting the following:
* Tickets
* Official identification. Copy
* Card with the purchase I make (if applicable, Copy)
Once the documents are sent, the actual tickets must be mailed to our offices in Monterrey, which will provide a reply to the e-mail in which we receive the documents. The dates for this are from October 28th to November 7th, 2014.
If you purchased with cash you must also attach the card to which you want us to make the deposit, if the purchase was made through credit/debit card the refund should appear on your balance from 25 to 30 working days from when the complete paperwork is received. Service charge is not refundable.

http://www.ufc.com/news/cain-velasqu...witter%3A+ufc&

[Pahlavan]

Gaat lekker met die UFC kampioenen van nu. Zijn vaker geblesseerd dan dat ze hun titel verdedigen. Zonde.

[Tony]

Ik vind het een prachtige kans voor MArk Hunt. Zou zo gaaf zijn als hij de interim HW champ wordt.

[cornelus]

Zonde? Ronduit dubieus... begint een beetje erg structureel te worden. Ze trainen teveel en vechten te weinig.

[carlo1]

Kut voor cain en super voor mark. De 1 zijn dood ..... Hoop zo dat mark wint!!

[YoMarK]

Ben een groot fan van Mark Hunt, maar Werdum is toch wel de betere allround MMA vechter en die zie ik dus liever winnen.
Hunt heeft sowieso biet veel kans tegen Cain, en Werdum wel. De matchup hierna is dan ook beter.

[lukashenko]

iemand moet cain zn titel afpakken .. die knakker vecht mij veel te weinig en heeft de laatse 5 jaar maar 2 tegenstanders gehad bigfoot en jds .. snap niet dat mensen hem zo hoog blijven ranken enz ... wel een mooie kan voor hunt al zie ik hem niet van werdum winnen .... als je dan iemand een kans gun dan gun ik hunt ook wel

[T15Boxing]

Mijn teleurstelling valt wel mee weet je waarom? Omdat ik nooit meer hoop heb voor een groot gevecht, want als ze de weigh ins en zelfs het gevecht halen is het een fucking zegen. Binnenkort wordt het zelfs een wonder.

[The Company]

Zou echt mooi zijn als Hunt Werdum KO slaat

[S.B.]

Hunt de UFC HW champion zou de grootste verassing van het jaar zijn. Ik schat de kans dat het daadwerkelijk gebeurt niet zo heel groot, maar er zijn wel eens gekkere dingen gebeurt.

Pak die Cain inderdaad lekker zijn titel af, goede vechter, maar heeft tot nu toe zijn beloftes nog niet waargemaakt.

WAR MARK HUNT!

[Tony]

Ik begin enigszins te geloven dat Hunt serieus de titel kan pakken. Ik zie hem van iedere HW winnen. Dat geluk heeft ie met zijn one punch knock out power. Zie Nelson die voorheen nog nooit KO ging.
Maar goed, technisch gezien is Mark Hunt de mindere. Laten we eerlijk zijn ja. Werdum zou hem moeten oprollen op de grond. Maar staande zie ik Mark als de betere.

Mogelijk ooit, een Cain Velasquez tegen Hunt. Ook hier geldt weer dat Hunt met 1 stoot kan winnen. Maar Cain is snel en bewegelijk. Denk dat hij uiteindelijk wel aan het langste eind trekt. Maar man man man, hoe gaat zou het zijn, als Hunt het weet te flikken. Dan ga ik echt ballistic!!!

[my2cents]

Zonde? Ronduit dubieus... begint een beetje erg structureel te worden. Ze trainen teveel en vechten te weinig.

Dit, gewoon minimaal 4 keer per jaar laten vechten.

[Turboknecht]

Mijn teleurstelling valt wel mee weet je waarom? Omdat ik nooit meer hoop heb voor een groot gevecht, want als ze de weigh ins en zelfs het gevecht halen is het een fucking zegen. Binnenkort wordt het zelfs een wonder.

Helemaal mee eens. Uit zelfbescherming ga je maar niet meer teveel naar een partij uitkijken. De teleurstelling is dan ook niet meer zo groot.

Blijkbaar traint Cain teveel, te hard, weet ik het, maar hij is aan de lopende band geblesseerd. Kampioenen vechten vrij weinig. Ergens gaat het mis.

Voordeel, zowel Hunt als Werdum gun ik het enorm. Werdum moet hem gewoon pakken, hij is een completere vechter. Maar wanneer Hunt het flikt zou het ook echt geniaal zijn. Nog steeds een partij om naar uit te kijken.

[Naj85]

Fan favorite Mark Hunt finally gets crack at (interim) UFC heavyweight title

By Kevin Iole 6 hours ago Yahoo Sports


. View photo

Hunt is 5-1-1 in his last seven UFC fights and has won five post-fight bonuses in the span. (Getty)



Mark Hunt's life story is turning into a movie before our eyes.
Four years ago, Hunt was at home, unwanted by the UFC, forgotten by the fans. The massive striker who'd won the K1 World Grand Prix kickboxing championship in 2001 had lost five mixed martial arts fights in a row and seemed on a fast track to nowhere.
All of them had ended in the first round. Josh Barnett and Fedor Emelianenko submitted him in 2006 with a Kimura. Alistair Overeem forced a tap with a keylock and Melvin Manhoef stopped him with strikes in 2008.
Gegard Mousasi submitted him with an arm bar in 2009.
Four of the five losses were 2:02 or less. The UFC owned his contract following its purchase of PRIDE, but White had no interest in Hunt.
Hunt, though, didn't want to sit at home and collect money for doing nothing. He's a fighter and fighters fight. When White told him the UFC didn't want him, Hunt fought back. He argued with White and asked for a chance.
After a long back-and-forth, White relented and gave Hunt a shot at UFC 119. Hunt then promptly went out and was submitted by Sean McCorkle just 63 seconds into his UFC debut on Sept. 25, 2010.
View gallery
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Antonio 'Big Foot' Silva connects against Mark Hunt during their epic December 2013 fight. (Getty)

Four years later, White picked up the phone and called Hunt again. This time, he needed Hunt to save his show. Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez got hurt in training, suffering a right knee injury that will keep him out of competition until sometime next year, and the mega-show that the UFC was planning was suddenly in trouble.
With only about three weeks until the fight at Mexico City Arena, White had to act quickly when he learned of Velasquez's setback. He offered the bout opposite Fabricio Werdum to Hunt, who was both eager and available.
"I said yes before he even got the question out," Hunt told Yahoo Sports during a brief telephone interview on Tuesday.
Hunt said he weighs "137 kilos, maybe even 138." And then he laughed and said, "No big deal."
Translated to pounds, Hunt weighs a little over 300 now with three-and-a-half weeks before the weigh-in when he has to make 265 pounds on the nose.
That, though, didn't deter him. Hunt loves nothing more than a good fight, and one with big stakes makes it all the better.
"You don't say no to this kind of opportunity," Hunt said. "This is an amazing opportunity and even though I'm not in fight shape or anything, there was never a doubt I was going to take it."
The card is the UFC's first in Mexico, and it was built around Velasquez. The heavyweight champion means so much to the UFC in his home country and throughout Latin America that while he was rehabilitating from left shoulder surgery, White held off on putting a card in Mexico. Velasquez was the UFC's biggest Spanish-speaking star and White repeatedly said the UFC wouldn't go to the country without him.
But fate dealt Velasquez another difficult hand and White had no choice but to find a replacement, because canceling or postponing the show was not an option at such a late date.
So now in steps this unlikely 40-year-old, one who has been beaten in the first round of seven fights overall, coming in dramatically at the last moment to save the show.
And while most would agree that Werdum has the far better all-around game, no one is discounting Hunt's chance to win and earn the interim belt.
"What he has done, and is doing now at 40 years old, is in my opinion, the greatest story in sports," UFC president Dana White told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. "His record was upside down. He wasn't looking that great. He was on a long losing streak. It didn't make sense for us to bring him in given his record and how things were going for him.
View gallery
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Mark Hunt also had a Fight of the Year candidate in 2013 against Junior dos Santos. (Getty)

"I told him, 'Look man, we'll pay you what we owe you for the rest of the contract and go ahead and do your thing.' But he got so mad when I said that. '[Expletive] you! [Expletive] you! I'm not doing that. I'm fighting.' And look at him. It turns out that in the long run, he was right and we were wrong. He's earned 10 times what he'd have made if we'd just paid him off and here he is fighting for the title." When White called him this time to offer him the interim title shot against Werdum, Hunt never had a doubt.
He'd knocked out Roy Nelson in the second round of a card in Japan on Sept. 20, and immediately returned home to Australia to enjoy life until his next bout.
Hunt is just 1-1-1 in his last three fights, but the draw was arguably the greatest heavyweight MMA fight ever and one of the best UFC fights of all-time, a match against Antonio "Big Foot" Silva in Brisbane, Australia, on Dec. 6, 2013.
He laughed when his first conversation with White was mentioned, and he said there was no way he was going to take the money and run.
"I've never been a quitter, ever, and I've always had the knack of being able to turn a negative situation in my life into a positive one," Hunt said. "I'm a big believer in Christ and his hand is over my life, and is a big influence on me.
"And I just love what I do. I love it. This is a great opportunity and nothing was going to get me to say no. Yeah, I'm not in fighting shape and I have some weight to drop, but you have to remember, fighting is the easy part. It's what I love to do. So of course I was going to say yes."

[Naj85]

Cain Velasquez to undergo knee surgery on Thursday

By Ariel Helwani @arielhelwani on Oct 22 2014, 12:16a 17
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting


Tweet (58) Share (687) Share 17 Comments Rec 1

Cain Velasquez was planning on fighting Fabricio Werdum with a slightly torn meniscus in his right knee, but after spraining his MCL in the same knee late last week, he was forced to pull out of the fight.
According to Javier Mendez, Velasquez's coach at the American Kickboxing Academy, Velasquez has been dealing with a torn meniscus for quite some time, however, he suffered the sprained MCL during a training session (sprawl drills) on Oct. 16 or 17 and that ended his dream of headlining a show in Mexico City (for now, of course).
Velasquez is scheduled to have surgery on his right knee on Thursday in San Jose, Calif. The surgery will fix the torn meniscus, while rehab will be needed for the sprained MCL.
According to UFC president Dana White, the promotion is hopeful the UFC heavyweight champion will be able to return to action by March, and Mendez, who said Velasquez was in "good spirits" all things considered, agreed with that timeline.
The UFC announced on Tuesday that, as a result of the Velasquez injury, Mark Hunt will now meet Werdum at UFC 180 on Nov. 15 for the interim heavyweight title.

[Minotauro]

Mark Hunt! Ouwe baas is het. Hoop echt dat hij verrast tegen Werdum en van mij mag hij Velasquez ook opvouwen. Hunt is een parel uit de sport. Klasse vechter en altijd respect naar tegenstanders, zowel voor het gevecht als dat wanneer de tegenstander net KO is geslagen en hij netjes wegloopt. Heerlijk nieuws!

Zie overig JDS (verreweg) nog steeds als de beste heavyweight in de UFC. Zie Hunt eerlijk gezegd nooit van JDS winnen, mocht het zo ver komen

[Naj85]

van sherdog:

First of all Cain is without a doubt one of the best HWs ever. But from a business perspective he's been a nightmare for the UFC

He destroyed Lesnar, eliminating the UFC cash cow. Remember how pissed Dana was post fight?

He then gets KTFO in 1 minute on Fox in front of millions of fans (how many potential newbies?)

He then comes back and destroys JDS, taking away his relevance. JDS has the perfect HW style to attract fans, his first defence v Mir did great PPV numbers. But with Cain champ, he will never get another shot.

Now he gets injured again, ruining the UFC debut in Mexico and gives Bellator far more viewers for their Bonnar Tito fight on free tv.

Dana must hate Cain...

[Naj85]

vind dat ze wat moeten doen aan champions die meer dan 1x geblesseerd raken. geen interim titel meer maar gewoon strippen van die title. pettis, aldo, cain, weidman altijd wat met deze 4. en jones ook niet te vergeten. kan me niet herinneren dat Anderson Silva een keer niet vocht vanwege een blessure
het gaat de laatste tijd ook bijna altijd mis met die TUF. hoeveel van die gevechten zijn doorgegaan? waardeloos..

[Minotauro]

Ja echt he. Het zijn altijd Pettis, Aldo, Cain en Jones.

[appelsap]

In 3 weken tijd 20kg afvallen en jezelf klaar maken voor Werdum is wat lastig. Zal hem er binnen 1,5 ronde uit moeten slaan anders wordt het een hele saaie partij waarbij Werdum in de latere rondes op sub gaat winnen denk ik.

[Minotauro]

Hoezo 20 kg afvallen ineens?

[Tony]

Zie overig JDS (verreweg) nog steeds als de beste heavyweight in de UFC. Zie Hunt eerlijk gezegd nooit van JDS winnen, mocht het zo ver komen

Ik zie Hunt juist veel eerder van JDS winnen dan van Velasquez.

[Minotauro]

Stand up? Ik juist niet. Ik weet niet of je de partij tussen JDS en Hunt hebt gezien, maar daar was Hunt vrijwel kansloos. Zoals JDS Cain raakte, zo zou Hunt ook kunnen verrassen, maar tegen JDS zelf zie ik dat echt niet gebeuren.

[S.B.]

Wel raar overigens dat ze niet JDS van de UFC on FOX card afgehaald hebben om voor de titel te vechten? Die kan nog steeds geheadlined worden door AO - Struve of ben ik dan heel nationalistisch ingesteld?

[LightHeavyWeight]

Wel raar overigens dat ze niet JDS van de UFC on FOX card afgehaald hebben om voor de titel te vechten? Die kan nog steeds geheadlined worden door AO - Struve of ben ik dan heel nationalistisch ingesteld?

Het is natuurlijk puur sportief gezien belachelijk dat Hunt deze partij gaat vechten, ondanks de gun factor. Gun factor boeit mij trouwens niet veel, de besten moet er gewoon staan en dat zijn JDS en Werdum. en het is alweer een aantal jaar geleden dat zij tegen elkaar hebben gevochten dus marketing technisch kan het ook prima. En niet voor de vacant-title maar gewoon voor de belt vechten, blessures is een onderdeel van de sport dus jammer maar helaas voor Cain. Een fitte Cain zou de belt daarna weer terug moeten kunnen pakken.