Michael Bisping Hurt, Hector Lombard Steps in to Fight at UFC 149

The big question on everyone's mind today was, "Who will the UFC find to fight Hector Lombard?"

Well, the answer may not be who they expected. Lombard went to Twitter to call out Michael Bisping in hopes of drawing "The Count" as Brian Stann's replacement. Unfortunately for Lombard, it appears Bisping suffered an injury in training and has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 149 bout against Tim Boetsch.

The UFC broke the news late Thursday night on their Web site. Lombard will now step in for Bisping at UFC 149.

This may turn out to be good news for the Cuban fighter as Boetsch is a similar fighter to Stann, whom Lombard was in camp preparing to face. There is also less pressure in a fight with Boetsch as most of the attention will be firmly placed on Jose Aldo and Erik Koch in the lead up to the card. 

There is no word on the type of injury that Bisping suffered, though it was bad enough that he had to pull out of the fight. Bisping vs. Boetsch was originally slated for UFC 148, but was moved to the Calgary event to give the card a bit more star power. 

This move also helps to strengthen the Calgary event which just saw Mauricio Rua moved to the UFC on FOX 4 card. 

Hopefully this is the last of the injury news for the week. I don't think I can take much more of this. I can only imagine how stressful this has been for Joe Silva who has to play magician to save these cards.

UFC 149 takes place July 21 at the Saddledome in Calgary, Canada.