LAS VEGAS - Another fighter is off the injury-ravaged UFC 108 card, leaving Dana White shaking his head. But the UFC president says the mixed martial arts juggernaut continue to produce healthy numbers.
"In the history of the company, we've probably never gone through as many injuries and craziness as has happened to us in the last few months," White told the pre-fight news conference Wednesday.
Steve (Robot) Cantwell is the latest fighter sidelined. White said the 23-year-old light-heavyweight, who was slated to meet Vladimir (The Janitor) Matyushenko, has medical problems. "He might not ever fight again," he added, declining to elaborate further.
Saturday's show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena has been a roller-coaster for weeks.
The main event was slated to be the Brock Lesnar-Shane Carwin heavyweight title fight that was pushed back from UFC 106 in November.
When Lesnar did not recover from a serious digestive illness, the showcase bout was switched to heavyweights Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cain Velasquez, only for Nogueira to be sidelined by a serious staph infection.
Other fighters to fall off the card are Carlos Condit, Gabriel Gonzaga, Tyson Griffin, Rory Markham, and Sean Sherk.
Lightweight Jim Miller is on his third opponent in the form of Duane (Bang) Ludwig after Griffin and Sherk both pulled out injured.
White says the recent injury streak has not hurt the UFC's bottom line.
"Our last two shows, even with the (injury) fallouts and everything we've had happen have been amazing pay-per-view numbers. This thing continues to go, we continue to pull killer numbers on television, the momentum hasn't died at all. And this (UFC 108) is a great fight card with great fighters."
White said the "minimum" for a UFC pay-per-view is about 500,000 buys. Not bad at C$49.99 a go, especially when the UFC had two shows in November.
"That's a lot of pay-per-view buys in less than one month," said White.
The UFC president had no explanation for the run of injuries, but said a busy calendar was not the reason.
"We put on a lot of shows last year too and this didn't happen," he said. "It's just one of those things. Guys are getting injured. . . This is a physical sport, these guys train hard. I don't think people really realize . . . what goes into mixed martial arts training. It's actually shocking that we haven't had injuries like this sooner.
"But there's some freak stuff out there, like what happened to Brock Lesnar. You've got guys that cut themselves on sheet metal. Some weird, goofy stuff too."
Condit apparently cut his hand on a piece of metal while cleaning his garage. That drew no sympathy from opponent Paul (Semtex) Daley, who called Condit a "pussy."
Welterweight Dustin Hazelett finds himself the benefactor of Condit's misfortune, stepping in to face Daley in the co-main event Saturday.
It's a payback perhaps for his last fight, which was cancelled when opponent Karo (The Heat) Parisyan pulled out the day before the UFC 106 weigh-in.
Hazelett knows all about injuries. He underwent surgery in February after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament "in a fluke accident" and was out for five months.
"It's a sport where it's really easy to get banged up," said Hazelett.
"What we go through in a training camp is ridiculous," he added. "And if people really knew how much we sacrificed and what we put our bodies through for that 15 minutes in the cage, I think people would look at the sport differently.
"Every card you'll get a couple of people injured. I think this time was just more than usual."
The main event Saturday features former light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans against Brazilian Thiago Silva. Also on the main card, lightweight Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout of London, Ont., takes on Joe Lauzon
The injury bug has also bitten UFC 109, slated for Feb. 6 in Las Vegas. Josh Koscheck has had to pull out of his rematch with Brazil's Paulo Thiago. Light-heavyweight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira's twin brother - also was hurt preparing for his fight with Brandon (The Truth) Vera.
NOTES - UFC president Dana White got into hot water earlier this year for an expletive-filled tirade against a female reporter, eventually apologizing for a gay slur contained in the video blog posted to YouTube. His blood pressure and vocabulary peak again in a new video blog this week when he rants in a phone call to an MMA website over their reporter's reaction to an op-ed piece by White in the Las Vegas Sun on the future of the UFC. Typical "douchebag reporter" is White's final comment to the camera.
