UFC on FX 7 Injury Watch: Why Belfort vs. Bisping Card Is Still at Risk

Injuries have become more than a way of life in the UFC. Now, they're a constant shadow covering over every event, with each one hitting at the absolute worst possible time.

That's why MMA fans should be very paranoid about UFC on FX 7.

Like so many other fight cards last year, this event is pretty much all about the main event with nothing else to support it.

If everything goes off without a hitch, Vitor Belfort and Michael Bisping should both make it to Brazil's Ibirapuera Arena for their bout.

But what if one of them doesn't?

Unlike UFC 158, a card stacked with two headliners and four possible replacements, UFC on FX 7 appears to have no back-up plan. There's no safety net if anything happens to Bisping or Belfort, and it's made even worse by the fact that they're the only two stars on the card.

With only 13 days left, that's plain dangerous.

If Belfort goes down, there's no hometown headliner, and the UFC doesn't have another big-name Brazilian fighter coming off a win to play foil to Bisping's "arrogant foreigner" character.

Should something happen to Bisping, practically the only person who could fill in would be Hector Lombard—and since UFC champion Jon Jones has made it clear that you can say "no" to Dana White, there's no telling if he would take that fight on such short notice.

Anderson Silva won't be riding in on a white horse like he did with UFC 153.

Chael Sonnen is out of the middleweight division. Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold are still injured.

Unless Ronaldo Souza is hiding out as a secret understudy, there's no other decent option.

And practically no one else would take a fight with Bisping or Belfort in less than two weeks, either, as they're two difficult opponents to prepare to fight against.

Hopefully, nothing happens during the injury watch for UFC on FX 7—at least, not to the headliners.

Even though the UFC would probably never cancel a Brazil card (overly-ravenous ticket buyers would make it a wash), it would still be a major step down for the main event to suddenly be something like Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ben Rothwell.

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McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld and PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.