Jose Aldo became the latest casualty of the UFC's summer of injuries over the weekend, as the UFC Featherweight Champion was forced to withdraw from his planned title defense against Erik Koch at UFC 149 due to an undisclosed injury suffered in training. The fight card at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary will now be headlined by the UFC Interim Bantamweight Championship bout between Urijah Faber and Renan Barao.
While Faber is a major attraction in his own right - easily the best known fighter in the world below 155 pounds - Barao himself is an injury replacement for UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz, a reminder of just how many planned bouts for this summer's UFC fight cards have been scrapped due to injury.
With the parade of injuries growing - the list now includes planned main eventers Aldo, Cruz, Vitor Belfort and Brian Stann - some have pointed to the UFC's decision to provide insurance for injuries suffered in training as a cause for the litany of scrapped fights. After all, it's not exactly a secret that few, if any, fighters come through training camp at 100 percent, but the necessity of a fight purse and sponsorship money provides a strong incentive to fight through those injuries. With insurance available to ease the financial pressure, fighters have less incentive to fight hurt, particularly when a loss can be a major blow to a fighter's standing in the UFC.
Dana White has spoken sharply against the possibility that insurance is a cause behind injury withdrawals, telling MMA Weekly, "Guys that fight in the UFC and the guys that we deal with all the time are hungry to fight. These guys want to fight, and they want to get paid. The more you sit on the sidelines, and the more you're out, the less money you make."
White is probably correct about his fighters and their drive: no one at this level in the UFC got to his position by being eager to drop out of fights. However, there's another way in which insurance might be influencing the UFC's injury rate: by giving fighters cause to train too intensely.
White is of the opinion that some of his fighters fight too hard in training, causing the rise in injuries. "Wou have so many talented guys out there now all in the same camp," White said, "going at it like they're fighting for the title, these guys need to tone it down in training a bit and stop hurting each other."
Again, White is probably correct, but it begs the question: if insurance wasn't so readily available to cover injuries suffered in training, would UFC fighters hold back more in training, and take more risk to avoid injury?
No one is saying that the UFC shouldn't offer insurance. The move was a good one, and a necessary one to improve the promotion's legitimacy as a mainstream sport. However, it's looking more and more like there may unintended consequences from the UFC's move, and the promotion's executives need to examine the best way to move forward and keep those consequences out of control.
