Daniel Cormier out at UFC 197

Daniel Cormier has bowed out of UFC 197 due to an injury according to the UFC. To take his place will be Ovince St. Preux

Cormier was slotted in for the main event, a light heavy weight title bout against former LHW champion Jon Jones. If you pay attention to UFC, you know that these guys do not like each other. The hate began before their first fight in which Jones was LHW champion defending his title against Cormier. They spat verbal patronage across podiums and on talk shows. Even in the months leading up to this fight they were talking shit back and forth. 

So it is pretty safe to say this is a complete deal breaker for me. I will no longer be paying to watch this fight. A total waste of my money. Cormier has only one lose in the UFC, he has only been taken down twice and by one person. Jon Jones. 

In Jones absence, Cormier had two title defenses. Three if you count him as the Interim champion, after the suspension of Jon Jones, during his fight against Anthony Johnson in UFC 187. 

This fight was supposed to be the two best in their weight class. Their last fight was astounding with both fighters going the distance. 

Now it is another late withdrawal from a big fighter. The UFC has suffered quite a few of these scenarios. If you recall this has happened to Connor Mcgregor twice. It happened to Jon Jones when he had to fight Daniel Cormier for the first time. It seems like its an recurring issue in this sport. The trainers and athletes cant keep themselves healthy. 

It is a perfectly understandable thing in a fighting sport. The problem I have is that it has happened so frequently to the main cards. The UFC shouldnt come out looking like the WWE with these surprise appearances in their main fights. If anything WWE has almost infinitely times more bearing on the direction of their fighters then the UFC. Constantly the replacement is happening and now we have seen quite a few of their big ticket fighters lose dramatically. 

I don't know how you can prevent athletes from getting injured in training. There may not even be an answer to that. That might just be something that the UFC has to suffer through. But there is a way to keep the wheels on the track here. Try and not let the biggest name in the sport fight almost 30 lbs over his weight class. It is kind of stupid to think that Mcgregor on short notice can efficiently gain 30 lbs and have his strikes do the same amount of damage. It is nearly impossible and Mcgregors loss proved that. 

Mcgregor in the Featherwieght division is unstopable. He nearly always has a reach advantage and at that weight has misleading power and accuracy that shreads 135-145 lbers. When he fought Diaz, the accuracy was there but the power wasn't. It took a lot of Connor delivering his blows and even more when he saw Diaz continuing to come right after him. 

I'll probably end up watching UFC 197, but I won't like it. Fuck that, I love fighting and I love the UFC.