Will the UFC Ever Be KOed By Injuries?

Injuries hurt everyone. They hurt the fighter, not just physically, but they can set their career back in several ways. The most obvious setback is the financial one. While UFC may give them some sort of compensation, they lose out on the fight purse plus any chance of bonus money.

While a fighter can ultimately recover from the financial set back it may hurt them worse from a marketing and career standpoint. Fighters get the chance to fight 3 or 4 times a year, so to lose a fight due to injury can stall their career progression. It can give momentum to other fighters in their division while taking it away from them.

A perfect example is the title fight taking place at UFC 90. Patrick Cote was not set to fight Anderson Silva until Yushin Okami sustained an injury. Now Cote has the spotlight while Okami will be fighting Dean Lister at UFC 92. While I am sure Yushin is happy to be back in the octagon, did his title shot opportunity get KOed forever?

What a turn of events it would be if Cote was to somehow win and Okami were to get upset by Lister. What a difference an injury to the hand would lead to. While I am not predicting this will happen, you can clearly see the potential ramifications to a fighter’s career.

Injuries also can hamper the marketing and potential profit of a business. Let’s not forget about the Shogun Rua-Chuck Liddell-Rashad Evans saga. In February of this year it was announced that Shogun Rua was to fight Chuck Liddell.

Then in March it was announced that "Shogun" was undergoing surgery on his knee and was forced to withdraw from the fight. It was later officially announced that undefeated Rashad Evans would replace Shogun Rua in a bout at UFC 85. However, a hamstring injury forced Liddell to withdraw from the fight, as well!

Rashad and Chuck finally stepped into the octagon at UFC 88 and the rest is history. Rashad got his shot in and now the UFC is offering us a less marketable title fight between Evans and Griffin. And, as a result, potential less profits for the company, not to mention all the other complications. What a logistical headache it can be for the company trying to financially plan and market around injuries.

And let us not forget about the fan. We all felt the immediate effect of what happened to October’s fight cards. First, UFC does a great thing and offers us a free fight card on Spike TV. UFC 89 looked a lot more intriguing when two undefeated fighters, Lyoto Machida & Thiago Silva, were set to face off. Now the luster has been taken off this event and the fight was rescheduled for UFC 94. Lets hope it actually happens this time!

Even more detrimental is what is happening to UFC 90. First came the stiff jab of Ricardo Almeida being forced to withdraw from his fight due to undisclosed injury. Now we get to see two former IFL fighters in the octagon. Then a vicious hook landed when we learned Goran Reljic would be off the fight card, to be replaced by incomparable Drew McFedries! I’m sure Thales Leites is less than thrilled about what this fight could do for his career.

Finally, we had a violent uppercut almost connect, one that would have been a near KO. Luckily, for the UFC, they were able to duck the near disaster and replace Diego with Koscheck to fight Alves. Ironically, Josh has already beaten Diego and is ranked higher then him in most polls, so we may end up with a better fight after all.

However, Diego is the more marketable right now so it could possibly hurt the UFC’s numbers. It will certainly hurt Diego’s title aspirations and set him back for some time. And it will certainly hamper the sleep of Diego’s fans whose worst “nightmare” came true.

Let’s just hope those rumors about Brock Lesnar being injured never hit us with a devastating liver shot. That kind of punch could crumple UFC 91 worse then Rich Franklin’s kick did to Matt Hamill.

Overall the UFC has done a competent job of handling the injury situation. They are fortunate to have a large pool of talented fighters that can step in, on a moment’s notice, and replace the fallen warrior. While injuries may never KO the UFC completely, all the stiff jabs and vicious hooks certainly take their toll on the fighter’s, the business, and the fans.