Jose Aldo forced out of UFC 149 headliner with undisclosed injury

With injuries affecting UFC cards at an all-time high, huge news comes today as Featherweight champion Jose Aldo has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 149 headlining bout versus Erik Koch. The exact specifics of Aldo’s injury remain a mystery, but with the announcement, the Interim Bantamweight title bout of Urijah Faber versus Renan Barao has now been moved to UFC 149 as the main event.

Taking place in Cargary, Alberta, Canada, the Bantamweight Interim championship will now occur two weeks later. The news comes hot off the heels of injuries occurring to Middleweights Brian Stann and Michael Bisping, which took place shortly after the shifts of UFC 146. This was added to the withdrawal of current Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, who unfortunately was forced to withdraw from his trilogy match with Faber with a torn ACL.

There has never been such an amount of injuries that have affected the UFC’s high-level bouts, and may come as a by-product of fighter health insurance coming into effect. Regardless of the reasoning, MMA injuries are no doubt a guaranteed occurrence, and fans can only hope that they will not come into play as often as recently seen. Jose Aldo was riding high with the momentum of his spectacular knockout of Chad Mendes last January, it is highly unfortunate that this run has come screeching to a halt due to forces beyond the 145 lb. champ’s control.

Fans will have to wait for a true title fight at UFC 149, hopefully Canadian MMA supporters will be able to see their favorite son GSP defend his Welterweight title on November 17th in Montreal. Coming off of an ACL injury himself, GSP’s return, while targeted, is by no means guaranteed. Seems like each and every fight in the UFC lately is being forced to abide by the same set of rules.

Further Reading: Injury Plague: Brian Stann out of UFC on Fox 4 fight with Hector Lombard with injury

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