Aldo out of UFC 125 due to injury

dave1982

The UFC's new featherweight champion will have to wait a little bit longer to make his first defense of the belt.

The WEC's final 145-pound champ, Jose Aldo (18-1 MMA, 8-0 WEC), who officially was awarded his new UFC title prior to this past Saturday's UFC 123 event, has suffered an undisclosed injury in training and has been forced to withdraw from a scheduled bout with top contender Josh Grispi (14-1 MMA, 4-0 WEC) .

The two had been expected to meet in the co-main event of "UFC 125: Resolution," which takes place Jan. 1 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today verified Aldo's withdrawal, which was first reported by Heavy.com.

According to ESPN.com's Josh Gross, who posted the news on his official Twitter account, the injury was a "compacted vertebrae (which) caused tingling in both arms" and will force Aldo out of action for "at least a month for therapy."

Currently, officials have not decided how to plug the hole on the card or if Grispi will get a new opponent, sources told MMAjunkie.com.

Aldo, who was installed as a UFC champion following the recent decision to merge the world's largest MMA promotion with its sister company, the WEC, formally was awarded the UFC's first-ever featherweight title this past weekend.

Aldo debuted for the WEC in June 2008 with a second-round TKO win over Shooto legend Alexandre Franca "Pequeno" Nogueira.

Following five consecutive knockout wins to open his WEC run – including three in the first round – Aldo was granted a title shot against then-champion Mike Brown. Aldo halted Brown with strikes in the second round.

Aldo then defended his belt twice with wins over Manny Gamburyan and Urijah Faber and is currently considered among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

Another one of those cursed cards

Jamie OD

Ah shoot, I was really excited to hear his first fight in the UFC was going to take place so soon.

Could this lead to an Interim Featherweight Title being created before the original is even defended?

Richy06

He's not definitely out yet. Very doubtful though apparently. No hope of him being stripped having just gotten the belt and him being the best in that division by far and quite marketable from a money standpoint.

fakearms123

Am I the only one who is a little bummed that WEC is gone, I mean their cards were excellent! And they were free to watch, now there's less mma on and we get the same amount of paid UFC cards seems like we kind of lost out with this merge

Diego Smartly

This is poxy, dying to see Aldo fight again!

Although I think Grispi shoulda fought Mendes first then see who should fight Aldo.

Can't really see Grispi doing much but hopefully he puts it up to him.

Richy06

I think the merger overall won't be too big a difference. Any decent fighters from WEC have been brought over to the UFC.

This means we're going to see less of the crappy quality free cards that they've been putting out and it also means that we'll get more title matches as headliners.

The fighters themselves will make more money if they are successful because of the greater exposure and pay packets. If you look at it, Zuffa will be promoting the same amount of fight cards as they did this year, if not more. They are also trimming the fat from their existing divisions.

So what we're going to see is better quality cards at a more consistent rate.

I think it's only good, but that's just me!

dave1982

Jamie OD wrote: »

Ah shoot, I was really excited to hear his first fight in the UFC was going to take place so soon.

Could this lead to an Interim Featherweight Title being created before the original is even defended?

I hope :)Do you have a link to say he may not be out?

Edit just found this

With new UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo forced to withdraw from January's "UFC 125: Resolution" event, Dustin Poirier (8-1 MMA, 1-1 WEC) will now face Josh Grispi (14-1 MMA, 4-0 WEC).

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) confirmed that verbal agreements are in place for the new matchup, which was first reported by Heavy.com.

Featuring a lightweight title fight between current UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and top contender Gray Maynard, UFC 125 takes place Jan. 1 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs live on pay-per-view.

Grispi will now risk his No. 1 contender status in the matchup, which additional sources have indicated will likely no longer serve as the evening's co-main event. The new bout's exact positioning on the UFC 125 card is uncertain at this time.

The 22-year-old Grispi established himself as a top contender with four consecutive wins to open his WEC career – a run that includes a February 2008 win over fellow current contender Mark Hominick. The Massachusetts resident has since earned victories over Jens Pulver and Micah Miller in a combined 83 seconds and choked L.C. Davis unconscious in June.

Meanwhile, Poirier suffered the first loss of his career in a disappointing August loss to lightweight Danny Castillo. The Louisiana native bounced back in emphatic fashion with a 53-second TKO win over Zach Micklewright at WEC 52 earlier this month in another 155-pound bout. Now Poirier will try his hand in the featherweight division.

Both Grispi and Poirier will be fighting for the first time in the UFC.

For the latest on UFC 125 stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

(Pictured: Dustin Poirier)

Mellor

Richy06 wrote: »

I think the merger overall won't be too big a difference. Any decent fighters from WEC have been brought over to the UFC.
...
They are also trimming the fat from their existing divisions.

Not really, they have brought over all fighters, two whole WEC divisions, are now the two new UFC divisions. Haven't trimmed any divisions, and only LW is in danger, and tbh, some fighters will likely drop to FW which will make room for new WEC LWs