The UFC: In Sickness or in Health

A contract with the UFC is not the same as a marriage, but it does encompass the same distinction of each party being in a relationship both in sickness and in health.

Other than a death in the immediate family, nothing but an illness, accident or injury can be used as an excuse to miss a scheduled fight, and a note from home just will not suffice.

Some injuries are harder to prove; there is often no evidence of a back injury if an MRI or CT scan is negative for disc involvement. There are many muscles which can be strained that cause pain even though the spine is in alignment and no discs are compromised.

Proving muscle pulls, strains and sprains if there is no swelling or redness immediately detectable can be difficult as well. Remember how hard it was for the UFC doctor to convince Roman Mitichyan on TUF 6 that his arm was injured and he could not fight.

Well, today at the UFC 88 weigh-ins it was announced that Karo Parisyan had injured his back and would be unable to fight tomorrow.

There are many fans questioning whether this is a legitimate injury or may be due to the either the panic attacks he recently admitted to experiencing, or simply a lack of conditioning.

Although there are always doubters and nay sayers who will doubt an injury, back injuries are the most frequent complaints found among the workers of the world, and after suffering one it is always possible to re-injure the back simply by stepping off a curb the wrong way.

Not only is Karo on the injured and unable to fight list, but perhaps even more upsetting to UFC fans, Thiago Silva is unable to compete with Lyoto Machida at FC 89 due to a back injury. Redundant, yes, yet still relevant.

Fans were amped to see Thiago and Loyoto in a duel between two undefeated fighters to determine which should be in line for a shot at the Light Heavyweight Championship with Forrest Griffin.

Because the Thiago vs Lyoto fight was scheduled for Birmingham, England, and injuries plagued the last venue in England, some are saying that these UK matches are all "jinxed." Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans were scheduled to appear in the UFC 85 but the Iceman had a nasty hamstring pull that turned his upper thigh technicolor (if you have not seen pictures of the backside of his thigh, please look it up to see for yourself).

I wont't make any statement about a "plague" affecting fighters slated to fight in England, but I remember how so many strange circumstances can in fact result from a fighter being pulled from a match, going back to GSP's groin pull and BJ Penn fighting Matt Hughes, Matt Serra's two herniated discs and GSP's fight with Matt Hughes, just to mention a few.

And of course due to his left knee being injured in England by Thiago Alves when they stepped in and fought as the replacement for the Liddell vs Evans match, Hughes is still on the injured list awaiting his revenge match with Matt Serra. And so the cycle continues.

At least the rest of the card for Sept. 6 is intact with everyone making weight and ready to roll, and even the most staunch fan must admit that no one should gamble with their health.