Word circulated early on Wednesday that the UFC Heavyweight Championship bout between champion Junior dos Santos and former champion Cain Velasquez, announced as the main event of UFC 152 in Toronto on September 22, would be delayed because of a broken hand for Velasquez.
That is not the case, according to a report by Canadian TV network "The Score." The Score's Adam Martin got in touch with Javier Mendez, one of Velasquez's coaches at American Kickboxing Academy, and verified that the former champion is healthy, and even sparred earlier this week.
Velasquez was initially hit with a tentative six-month medical suspension following his win over Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva at UFC 146 last month, pending an x-ray examination on his left hand to investigate a possible broken bone. The results of that exam had not been reported as of earlier this week, and dos Santos' Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach Yuri Carlton told Brazilian MMA website Tatame that Velasquez did have a broken hand that would require the fight to be rescheduled to November or December.
Those reports were firmly rebutted by Mendez on Wednesday, leaving the rematch between dos Santos and Velasquez as the main event for UFC 152, which is also expected to include the highly anticipated welterweight battle between UFC legend BJ Penn and rising star Rory MacDonald.
The reports of Velasquez's hand from the dos Santos camp seemed odd initially for a number of reasons: first, it would be very much out of character for the UFC to make any comments regarding the date of a heavyweight title fight without knowing the availability of the combatants. An injury suffered in training is one thing, but a possible medical suspension resulting from the challenger's previous fight is a different matter entirely. Second, if Velasquez was indeed injured, the UFC could easily have tapped Fabricio Werdum to fight dos Santos, provided Werdum is successful next weekend at UFC 147.
Werdum should get another shot at "Cigano" at some point in the not-too-distant future. He was the champion's first UFC opponent back in 2008 at UFC 90, when dos Santos was still a relative unknown. "Cigano" announced his arrival in the UFC with a stunning knockout of Werdum (precisely the situation Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is trying to avoid with Glover Teixeira, by the way), then proceeded to run through six other UFC opponents on the way to his title win over Velasquez. With Werdum back in the UFC and riding the momentum of his 2010 win over Fedor Emelianenko, he's definitely a compelling opponent for Cigano, and if Velasquez was indeed unavailable, he'd be a likely challenger for the title.
Something about the report didn't seem right. The AKA camp has cleared it all up.
