Jose Aldo has been forced to pull out of a fight for the second time this year, forcing a change in yet another UFC main event and putting another of the organization’s shows in jeopardy.
A couple of hours after announcing that former light-heavyweight champion Quinton (Rampage) Jackson was injured and out of his UFC 153 match with Glover Teixeira at the Oct. 13 show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UFC president Dana White tweeted that the UFC featherweight title-holder Aldo had suffered a foot injury and was out of his match against Frankie Edgar.
Aldo had originally been set to defend his belt against Erik Koch at UFC 149 in Calgary on July 21; however an injury forced the postponement of the bout. Then late last month Koch sustained an injury of his own and the UFC immediately announced that the former lightweight champion Edgar would step in and face Aldo in his 145-pound debut.
The 26-year-old Aldo was involved in a traffic accident earlier this month in Brazil. According to reports, he was hit by a car while driving his motorcycle. At the time, his trainer said he had just suffered a swollen foot but there was no fracture and they didn’t expect it to have any effect on his upcoming fight, but it appears the impact may have been more severe.
UFC 153, which is filled with Brazilian fighters, is now without a main or co-main event and does not feature many high-profile fighters. Just last month, the UFC took the unprecedented step of cancelling a show for the first time just nine days away when UFC 151 lost its headliner after light-heavyweight challenger Dan Henderson was injured and champion Jon Jones declined a replacement fight against Chael Sonnen.
There is a lot more time for the UFC to find replacement fighters — or new fights entirely to replace the top two slots — and with so much local talent on the card, it will likely not mean the scrapping of a card in the MMA-mad country. But it is worth noting that a summer show that was being planned for a soccer stadium in Brazil and headlined by the much anticipated middleweight title rematch between Sonnen and champion Anderson Silva had to be switched to a much smaller location in Belo Horizonte and the Silva-Sonnen bout moved to UFC 148 in Las Vegas two weeks later.
It is now the seventh major UFC main event this year (pay-per-view or FOX card) that has undergone a change due to injury (along with UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit, UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir, UFC 147: Silva vs. Franklin 2, UFC 149: Faber vs. Barao, UFC on FOX 4: Shogun vs. Vera and UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson).
Former WEC featherweight champion and two-time UFC bantamweight title challenger Urijah Faber has been proposed as a possible replacement to fight Edgar, as well as his fellow Team Alpha Male fighter Chad Mendes, who was the last man to face Aldo.
U know I’m in for a good fight, I’m sure @chadmendes wld b eager 4 that fight@danawhite @ufc @mmainc @mikemmainc sucks 4 @josealdojunior
— Urijah Faber (@UrijahFaber) September 11, 2012
POLL:
Who should replace Aldo and fight Frankie Edgar in the UFC 153 main event?
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