An injury sidelining a UFC fighter ahead of a highly anticipated fight is hardly news at this point. With the ranks of the wounded now including three UFC Champions, main eventers, and a variety of top names, the news that Bibiano Fernandes is injured and will not make his UFC debut next month against Roland Delorme at the UFC 149 fight card at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary should not come as any great shock.

Except that it does, because Fernandes announced that while he was in negotiations with the UFC, they never agreed to a contract, and he still has not been signed by the promotion. The controversy raises questions as to whether the reigning DREAM Bantamweight Champion will, in fact, make his debut for the UFC. The answer is probably most likely to come the next time Dana White does an interview with Ariel Helwani, because Helwani never lets an interview opportunity with the UFC President go by without asking him about any and all hot issues regarding the UFC.

What may be an even more intriguing question is how and/or why it was that the UFC advertised Fernandes' arrival without having him under contract first. Given Fernandes' talent - victims of "the Flash" include Joe Warren and Antonio Banuelos, among others - and the fact that the UFC is the premier MMA promotion on the planet, one would assume that if there was mutual interest, the deal would get done. However, it is well known what happens when one assumes, and that fate appears to have befallen someone at the UFC. We won't know what really happened, however, until someone gets White or another UFC official on the record about it.

In the meantime, Delorme will likely get another opponent for the card, as the Winnipeg native is a natural choice for a card in Calgary. And, with Fernandes out, the chances of Delorme getting a win on home soil improved significantly.

We just don't know how or why that happened yet.