White: You can't fake injuries in UFC

TORONTO -- One of the biggest knocks on the UFC lately has been the rash of injuries that cause constant reshuffling of events and also often lead to champions sitting out for extended periods of time without defending their belts.

The biggest case of that came up this week, when welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre of Montreal, who had already pulled out of a fight in October with a knee injury, announced he had blown his ACL on his other knee and is expected to be out for an additional 10 months.

It’s become an even bigger problem, with some fans and other fighters suggesting that St-Pierre -- and middleweight champion Anderson Silva -- aren’t really hurt and are instead ducking their challengers (Nick Diaz and Chael Sonnen, respectively). UFC president Dana White said that’s baloney.

“You can’t fake injuries in the UFC,” White told reporters following Thursday’s pre-fight press conference. “If you say you’re injured, we send our doctors and have you checked out ourselves.”

In addition to GSP’s setback, White said that Silva had indeed hurt his shoulder and can’t fight until next summer, derailing a rematch with Sonnen that many had clamoured for.

As for St-Pierre, White believes it was a case of him getting diagnosed wrong back in October, when they thought he just suffered a tweak that only required rehab and not surgery. Therefore, he continued to train and only pulled out of his fight when he injured his other knee while overcompensating.

“If we knew that was a blown ACL from the beginning he could have already had the surgery done and been recovering this whole time,” White said.

Instead, it could end up being nearly two years between the time he last defended his belt against Jake Shields at UFC 129 in Toronto on April 30 this year and the next time he fights again.

“It is a big layoff, but what are you going to do?” White shrugged. “If a guy goes out there and blows his ACL there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Now the last two fighters St-Pierre was scheduled to fight, Diaz and Carlos Condit, will meet in February for an interim welterweight belt. GSP was supposed to fight Diaz before the latter missed some media duties and was switched in favour of Condit.

But after Diaz demolished B.J. Penn at UFC 137 in October (the same card GSP was supposed to fight Condit), Diaz called out St-Pierre and claimed he wasn’t really injured and just avoiding him. That angered St-Pierre to the point where the UFC remade the Diaz matchup.

There have also been questions as to whether it was appropriate to bring out the “interim” tag for Diaz-Condit rather than just make it a No. 1 contender bout, but White said it was the right thing to do.

“It’s been however many months since he’s fought (that the belt has) been tied up. What’s happened to Carlos Condit is unfair. Diaz was the Strikeforce champion. It just made sense.”

White also said the length of time St-Pierre will be out and the fact that the Diaz-Condit winner may fight again before St-Pierre is ready to return played into that decision.

“That’s the other reason, whoever wins that fight, the belt will be defended at least once before GSP is back.”

White did say he was “100 per cent confident” that St-Pierre would rebound from his injury and return.

"We're going to make sure that Georges gets the right surgery, with the right guy and the right rehabilitation," White added. "He's an athlete who's taken very good care of himself through his entire career and he's a guy who will put in the work and do the things that need to be done.”

MORE ON TITLE CONTENDERS: Regarding Silva’s belt, White said they asked Sonnen if he wanted to wait until the summer to fight the champion but Sonnen said he’s “’not waiting for this guy.’”

Sonnen will now take on Mark Munoz at the UFC on FOX 2 on Jan. 28 and the winner will get the next title shot. Michael Bisping faces Demian Maia on the same card, and will be the next in line for the 185-pound crown after that.

White also said that it was Bisping’s choice to fight on short notice -- he just defeated Jason Miller last weekend on the TUF finale in Las Vegas.

“We wanted a triple-header and Bisping wanted to fight,” White said.

The January event in Chicago is headlined by a light-heavyweight bout between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis. White confirmed that if Evans wins, he’ll be the No. 1 contender and face the winner of Saturday’s UFC 140 headliner between Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida.

If Davis wins? “We’ll see,” said White, who also wouldn’t commit on where Dan Henderson fits into the 205-pound (or 185-pound) title picture.

KEEPING UP WITH JONES: With GSP out, White said that leaves Silva and Brock Lesnar as the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draws. But the 24-year-old Jones is getting there.

“The thing is that’s happened with Jones is he’s so young, it’s one of those things where everybody’s waiting to see, ‘Can he beat this guy, can he beat that guy?’ I think we’ve pretty much seen after the (Quinton) Rampage (Jackson) fight what this kid’s capable of doing. That’s why I’m really looking forward to this (fight Saturday). This is going to be fun.”

James is a writer, editor and MMA enthusiast. His nickname, "Big Game" was given to him in the tradition of former Laker James Worthy and current Rays pitcher James Shields.