When it rains it pours.
The injury bug has apparently bitten undefeated light heavyweight Thiago Silva, forcing him to withdraw from a highly anticipated showdown with Lyoto Machida at UFC 89: “Bisping vs. Leben” at The National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Birmingham, England, on October 18.
MMAWeekly.com reports that the Brazilian “has been dealing with a back problem” that will make it impossible for him to be prepared in time for the very important 205-pound bout.
This is tragic.
That’s because the sensational match up was widely considered as a number one contender eliminator match behind the showdown between Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans this weekend. It was a fight that the fans and the fighters were looking forward to because it would help clear up a very muddied light heavyweight contender picture.
There’s no word yet on whether or not Machida will remain on the card against a yet to be announced opponent or if he will wait until Silva is ready for action.
Stay tuned for more details on this developing story.
94 Comments »
Well, I love Silva, and personally don’t think he was ready 4 Machida !
So I can’t say I’m too dissapointed. I hope they find a solid replacment…say another silva named WANDERLI ?
hell yeah, I’m all for that. But they better move it to another card, no way wandy will be on the undercard to bisping vs leban… Wandy should get the main event status…
Nah F wandy! Tell Forrest Griffin to step up, save the day,and Fight Machida!!!!!
Thats whats Champs do. Thats what Chuck would do when he had the title!
I don’t know why, but seriously… I rather see wandy fight machida LOL. give griffen thiago when he’s healed.
JOHN. you know its not up to forrest. it will be up to dana.
Hell yea linx!!!! Lets see Wanderlei/Machida! Its not like Wandy has an opponent yet. It could be on the Brock /Randy card! And then Thiago/Rampage, so Rampage gets abit more time to be right in the head!
I’d go with a Forrest upset if he ever faced off against Machida.
Wandy and Rampage are all but signed, sealed and delivered for UFC 91 http://www.fightticker.com/story_0904082240_quinton_jackson_vs_wanderlei_silva_at_ufc_91
This is really fu*ked up! I just wish these athletes were the ones in video games, I mean no injuries could affect the fight. Man, why does Thiago “The Slitter” Silva have to be injured?!?I mean, KAro was good enough. Why add one of my fave fighters into the mix?!? MAn this sux!!
With ya brother! Bring on Wandy!!!!
I preferred Rashad vs Thiago anyway. Put Wandy vs Forrest. Champs don’t necessarily face the #1 contender every time, but Wandy is top 5.
good point dirtbag…everbody loves wandy and forrest..but there good friends..it wud b interesting
Noooooooooooooooo I really wanted to see this fight I was cheering for Thiago. Man this sucks
This REALLY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! I am upset about this. I was REALLY looking foward to this fight, even though I thought that Machida would win by TKO in the 3rd round.
You can say that again. Isn’t Wandy fighting Rampage anyway? Damn this blows.
yup and yup
I was not looking forward to Bisping vs. Leben. This was the fight that made it an exciting card. I am glad that I do not live in England, because they get the most awful cards. The only reason those cards are on Spike in the U.S. is because no one would ever pay for these cards.
TKO?
That’s bold, 7 of his last 8 fights are decisions.
He’d have to engage for that to TKO someone.
I personally think Machida needs to beat someone in the top 10, 205 bracket before he’s a #1 contender.
I’d love to see him fight Wanderlie.
I think that Thiago Silva would get winded and frustrated in the third round and would leave him wide open for a big combo from Machida.
Sokodjou was a top 10 contender before he got handled, Tito may not be in the top 10 anymore but he is a former champ, who hold fairly recent albeit a controversial win over the current champ and should have won a decision against the chump fighting Liddell for the “#1″ contender spot. I think those wins coupled with an unbeaten record that includes dudes like Rich Franklin warrants being called the #1 contender. Especially considering the alternatives, Liddell 1-1 in his last 2 fights and Rashad? seriously Rashad, the guy who barely eeked out a decision against Bisping who isn’t even top 10 at MW, yeah Machida or Silva should be called the #1 over anyone else, there is something to be said for being unbeaten as long as you’re not fighting tomatoe cans
Luckily, its not quite too too late to find a decent replacement. they only have 5 weeks notice for the fight as of right now. That is definitely not enough time to train and devise a gameplan to beat Machida, but it is enough time to find him an opponent, that he would once again beat in BEAUTIFUL fashion.
thank god the ufc has a huge stable of great lhws. i was thinking shogun, but dont know if he’ll be ready by oct. stephan bonner is another “name” opponent. hell i say just give machida the tile shot with forrest in dec and have chuck fight a.silva. i know it wont happen this way, but i would love to see it.
that would be the BEST scenario b.w. but like you said, it ain’t gonna happen
Yeah UFC brass won’t give Machida a title shot now. They have too many “blockbusters” to book first and really all other fights would be a waste of time. This was really gonna be THE fight after which neither Thiago or Lyoto could be denied. I hope Machida doesn’t get put on the shelf, but…
This isn’t the first time they have tried to get a last-minute replacement opponent for Machida. Nobody wanted to fight him on short notice in the free anti-Affliction event on Spike, and I bet nobody steps up against him now either. Unless maybe they call Tim Boetsch. This seems to be his specialty.
Make Forrest step up and show the doubters that he is a real champ and give Machida a title shot on 1 months notice! He would never do it, chuck would.
You know those “WWJD” bracletes (what would jesus do). UFC champs should have a “What Would chuck Do braclet around their wrist”. champs like uLiddell and even Hughes would step in and save a ppv at anytime.
MAN up FORREST and GIVE THE TRUE #1 Contender, mACHIDA”, a title shot.
JOHN. dont blame the ufc’s politics on forrest. i think he would take the machida fight if the ufc asked him to, just like hughes and chuck did when they were ASKED. like i posted above, it’s out of his (forrest) hands.
This one hurts.. Ouch! My dude Thiago..Damn man.. Woah this pic is looking more and more nicer for the ICEMAN..woah.. Shit couldb’t his camp keep this under wraps for one more freakin day.. Now Chuck knows for sure.. I beat Rashad.. I fight for the title.. there is no more arguement if Lyoto and Thaigo don’t fight..which was suppose to be the #1 contender match up.
Forrest is being held out so he can fight Chuck in a super-mega-blockbuster title fight on New Year’s. You know, assuming Chuck beats Rashad.
stop defending Forrest, he said himself he didnt want to fight Machida
That is up to the UFC and JOe Silva, isn’t it? IF MAchida is the man then I think we will see the fight at some point and after a a few hurdles….
b.w. and linx, If not Wanderlei! What about Vera? He turned the first one down. Now he can make it up and step in.
JV, vera’s last excuse is that he needs more time to train for someone like machida, so I really doubt he’d take it again.
b.w., forrrest already went on record stating that he ‘wants nothing to do with that dude’ regarding to machida. Something tells me that it’s not just UFC politics…
Linx Bro..our only hope falls with Rashad Evans.. to F’up the UFC plans. Let’s pray!
I’m all for rashad getting the upset, seriously LOL, that would make everything fall into place (in regards to true LHW contenders).
LINX. he was being sarcastic, as to say nobody wants to fight this dude. forrest would fight him in a minute, it IS politics.
I’m not buying it b.w., but I hope you’re right…
LINX. until MMAMANIA post that “forrest rejects offer to fight machida” is when i’ll belive that he is ducking machida.
that may happen sooner than later b.w.
linx, What makes Machida a true contender??? A win over Wanderlei means more than a win over Tito right? And for those saying Thiago deserves a shot, who has he faced thats relevant??? Thats why I say, Machida/Wanderlei and Thiago/Rampage
what about chuck? does a win over rashad deserve him a title shot? rashad lost to tito (practically)! sure, chuck beat wandy and that’s saying a lot, but just like wandy needs to build himself back up again with a couple of wins over “true” contenders, so does chuck. machida and thiago, both are more deserving of a title shot, thiago is 4-0 in the ufc and machida is 5-0.
Between the 2 of them, only Machida has recently faced a ranked fighter, and that was Soko. You gotta do better than that to fight for the title. Beating Wandy is FAR more impressive than any of the opponents that both Machida and Silva have recently defeated. I hope they can find a good replacement for Machida to face, but this fight was really needed to help sort things out.
nobody wants to fight Machida, thats why he fights cans, end of story… he cant be denied forever
BW MMAMANIAPOSTED IT ALREADY…Forrest wants nothing to do with that guy…here it is….with the link to follow…
“I want nothing to do with that guy [Lyoto Machida]. Not at all. He’s a tough fighter and I’d like to fight a lot of other guys first. There are really about 20 guys who have impressed me — it’s a stacked division, that’s for sure. You’ve got undefeated guys like Rashad Evans, Chuck Liddell can knock anybody out with either hand, and then you’ve got Quinton, Wanderlei, even Wilson Gouveia and Jason Lambert — there are so many guys who are still at the top. Then there’s Thiago Silva, who beat Houston Alexander, Keith Jardine could make a comeback and Stephan Bonnar will be healthy soon.”
– Forrest Griffin tells The Sun that Lyoto Machida is not on the top of his list of opponents who he would look forward to fighting anytime soon. “The Dragon” is undefeated and has five wins inside the Octagon against fighters such as Tito Ortiz, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, David Heath and others. Brandon Vera also turned down a fight with Machida because he didn’t feel like he had enough time to prepare for his tricky fighting style that no one appears to be able to figure out. The interesting thing here is that Griffin and Machida were booked to fight at UFC 70: “Nations Collide” last year; however, Griffin had to withdraw from the fight because of a staph infection. If Griffin can get passed Quinton “Rampage” Jackson this weekend he may have no other choice but to go to battle against the Brazilian.”
http://mmamania.com/2008/07/01/ufc-quick-quote-forrest-griffin-wants-nothing-to-do-with-lyoto-machida/
good job monkey, all machida hates just got pwnd!
Nobody who has something to loose will fight Machida on a short notice, they have hard time finding contenders that wanted to fight him with ample notice. My guess they try to put someone trying to make name for himself, or cancel the fight.
5 weeks? From today (the 5th) till October 25th is 50 days. That’s 7 weeks buddy. Which makes it even more unbelievable to me that Thiago is pulling out at this stage, there’s just so much time left for him to heal. I realize it’s a big fight and all and you want to be 100% but, c’mon give your back 2-3 weeks and it should be fine and you can resume full training for another 4+ weeks. I don’t get it
depends what kind of injury he had, its probably not just a back ache, serra was out for a long time because of a back injury too. We need to learn what type of injury this is before making any assumptions.
bring on the wand
Nooooo!…This is not good at all..I was really looking forward to this fight..
Back injuries are contagious today.
On TATAME, thiago said he wanted to fight with the injury but his doc and Liborio wouldn’t let him.
Thats why I love him, cause he is a lunatic!
This was the fight that I most wanted to see on the next three cards. Maybe Wanderlei will take it, although I doubt he wants to as it has no upside for him.
Would you call me crazy if i said this was something the two fighters decided together that one of them would say they were injured to avoid them fighting each other? From what ive seen brazilians doesnt want to fight other brazilians…
yes I hear that quite often. I also hear all pride fighters do steroids, that rampage is sane, 9-11 was an inside job and man never landed on the moon. The world is fun when we give in to these d.u.m.b arguments
LINX. i blogged to you about this on another thread, but i agree that it is a silly myth that brazilians wont fight each other. it depends on what camps there from. att,chutebox,aka,mfs, extreme couture,team quest, none of these guys want to fight each other because they train together and are good friends, almost like brothers. gsp dose’nt want to fight guys like cote or goulet, but im sure he kicked alot of other canadian butt on the way up.
that’s what I’m saying b.w., yet only brazilians get the rep for this… I wish ppl would have an open mind regarding this, every single thread about any brazilian fighter on it ppl brings this up. It’s just s.i.l.l.y
In PRIDE, ChuteBox and Brazilian Top Team often had their fighters fighting each other, they were as close to a Brazilian “camp rivalry” that I know of.
yeah, CB and BTT are die hard rivals, they really are. Those ppl don’t mind fighting each other, in fact, they rather fight each other than fighting foreigners LOL.
Wow. This and Karo are huge blows to the cards.
Just be gald they we not both fighting on one card. Especially, the 89 card.
Shogun anyone?
I saw if Rampage/Shogun are fighting, give Lyoto Machida, MARK COLEMAN. Seriously.
Give him a gift for his trouble? I guess, nothing wrong with a free payday. I don’t get the impression Coleman really wants to fight anyone substanial though. He was dodging Lesnar, I can’t see him wanting to fight Machida either.
LOLOL Machida vs Coleman
Coleman +4000
Machida -6000
Seriously… that is funny.
Come on, I like Coleman and hes a very tough competitor, its just a horrible match up for him considering Machida doesnt get taken down
Darn it, i was really looking forward to seeing the battle pf the undefeated.
this is whats going to happen…..machida is getting scratched from the card and him and wandy will fight on news years for #1 contender guarentee….chucks doesnt deserve title shot..he would loose it within two fights anywase
what is with the back injuries!!! uhhhh this is terrible terrible news.
Rampage vs Machida please!
They could do
Vera v Machida or Jardine v Machida
vera and jardine are fighting each other on the same card so i am guessing james irvin will step in on short notice and lose again.
Matt,
Not with the positive test. His appeal would have to be heard first. That also assumes he is exonerated.
thats what i said… could be good fight
SOAB
I was looking forward to him mauling Lyoto “the backpeddler” Machida.
Stephan Bonnar could fight Lyoto again?? Or maybe Stephan can fight Vera and Jardine could fight Lyoto.
Bonner vs vera jardine vs machida… sounds nice.
I am torn with that one I thin Jardine would beat Vera and I really want him to get a win after that crushing defeat from Wandi. which I love every sec. of all 36 of them, but I really think Bonner needs to get back in there it has been a while since I have seen him.
Jardine will tear vera a new one
This sucks. Thiago is somebody I will pay to watch right now.
Rob Dib
http://www.break-your-face.com
Man I hate Machida (Tim Sylvia’s Cousin) that dude sucks balls. No way he deserves a title shot he is as boring as Metallica without the drugs and beer.
i say maybe bonner, antonio mendes, or james irvin
Irvin needs more than 5 weeks to clear his system
They should throw Wandi in there with him he is always down to fight anyone.
aren”t Vera and Jardine aready scheduled to fight?
Please, after UFC put Lesnar to fight for the title it’s completely worthless to discuss who should get a title shot or not. Liddell deserves him because he is a huge draw (that’s the only thing UFC takes in consideration to put together title fights). Machida won’t get his right now because most people think he is boring to watch (a statement that I don’t agree). Right now, he deserves it, but he’ll have to be like Jon Fitch and have 8 straight wins or something like that to earn a title shot. UFC has shown that they don’t give a crap about fighting, only business (sometimes good fights mean good business but not on Lyoto’s case)
Not all title shots are given due to popularity. Examples could be Sean Sherk, Matt Serra, Travis Lutter, Jon Fitch, Tim Silvia. Point is the UFC will give you a title shot if your deserve it, but if they need to hype an event, you can guarantee a fan favorite is going to get a big opportunity. That is the only reason Lesnar is getting a title fight with Randy, because that fight alone will sell out and do very well on PPV. Now if they want they can add some fluff to the rest of that card and save themselves a lot of SuperStars for the year end show. So that fight helps set up two PPV’s, good business sense.
No. UFC previously gave title shots when you deserved them, now its based on PPV sales. Forrest had a decent record at LHW but got a title shot through TUF fame, Lesnar through WWE fame. Chuck will get a title shot as he is Danas bum chum. The days of fighters with a winning streak getting a shot are gone.
“Liddell deserves his”. Correction
Perfect for Shogun.
For Sale: 4 Tickets to UFC 89 @ NIA Birmingham.
how about samurai melendez vs machida, this sounds good..you have to put someone as aggresive as samurai to get the best out of machida otherwise it be too techinically boring…