Dana’s Ferrari F430. Possibly just after getting that call that Brock Lesnar was out indefinitely with mono. The UFC has had catastrophe after catastrophe during the last month. And it’s not just fights on the undercard… it seems like every single prominent UFC fighter is out with an injury, an acting gig, or a case of money grub-itis.
Some of the injuries are pretty run of the mill. Anderson Silva, the middleweight champion, has a jacked up elbow and has ballooned to seemingly 300 pounds. Lyoto Machida, the light heavyweight champion, has a jacked up hand, courtesy of punching Shogun Rua right in the head. Heavyweight prospect Todd Duffee has a jacked up back. Nothing you can do about these things. Fighting is a brutal business and some guys aren’t going to come out of tough fights ready to step back in the Octagon immediately. Some of the other situations, well, they are a little bit odd.
First they lose Rampage Jackson, in the midst of the most watched season of The Ultimate Fighter ever, a season designed to push his fight with Rashad Evans. Rampage wanted to fulfill a childhood dream (and make mad scrilla) as the star of the new A-Team remake. His fight with Evans was postponed, then after a Dana White diss session, straight up cancelled as Rampage announced he wasn’t coming back at all.
Meanwhile, Dan Henderson, the former Olympian who decisively shut the mouth of the voluble Brit Michael Bisping is in the midst of a holdout. Henderson, at 39, has never been hotter. After a high profile coaching gig on The Ultimate Fighter 9, Henderson knocked out Bisping in a highlight worthy fashion, then delivered an extra shot for good measure. It was the most memorable moment at UFC 100 that didn’t involve Brock Lesnar promising to hump Sable. It was also Henderson’s last contracted UFC fight – and he wants a million dollar signing bonus to re up. Dana White doesn’t drive a Ferrari F430 because he likes to give his money away, so that didn’t happen. Scratch headliner number two.
And then you have Brock. The UFC’s biggest star, the heavyweight champion of the world, and the victim of the kissing disease? As Heavy.com was first to report, Lesnar, who was scratched from UFC 106 this month because of an illness, has still not started training. Word finally came out yesterday that he has mononucleosis, a disease that can keep even the toughest man sidelined for two months.
It’s inconvenient, to say the least, for Lesnar’s opponent Shane Carwin. Carwin will be allowed to wait as long as necessary for Brock to recover. But does he really want to go into the cage after a layoff of six months or more? Ring rust is real, and Carwin may be better off getting another fight under his belt in the meantime. A Carwin return would give the UFC one more marketable name for an upcoming show, something they need desperately.
In the meantime, Dan Henderson is sitting by the phone with a big smile on his face. The UFC needs big name fighters and he is a million dollars away from solving one of Dana White’s problems. Has a fighter ever gotten one over on Dana? Henderson may be the first, but if this injury jinx continues, he won’t be the last fighter to turn the UFC’s desperate straits into a financial windfall.