Chris Weidman out of UFC 173 with knee injury, title bout against Lyoto Machida moved to UFC 175

[Dale]

UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled title bout against Lyoto Machida at UFC 173, UFC officials announced Monday.

Weidman (11-0) will require minor surgery after sustaining a knee injury in training. As a result, his title defense against Machida (21-4) has been moved to the main event of UFC 175, which takes place July 5, 2014 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV.

A replacement main event for UFC 173 is expected to be finalized in the coming days.

The announcement marks the second recent shift in the middleweight title picture, as Weidman was initially slated to fight Vitor Belfort on May 24, 2014 at UFC 173. Belfort, however, withdrew from the event following the Nevada State Athletic Commission's ban on testosterone replacement therapy in late February, and of this writing, his future remains shrouded in uncertainty.

With Belfort out of the picture, Machida wasted little time stepping up and accepting the opportunity. Riding a perfect 2-0 record since dropping down to 185 pounds, highlighted by victories over Mark Munoz and Gegard Mousasi, the former light heavyweight champ is currently the No. 2 ranked middleweight on the UFC's official rankings.

Weidman, of course, captured the belt by dethroning record-breaking former champion Anderson Silva with back-to-back second-round TKO stoppages in 2013.

UFC 173 is scheduled to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV. An updated fight card can been seen below.

Main Card (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)TBA vs. TBA
Junior dos Santos vs. Stipe Miocic
T.J. Dillashaw vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Tony Ferguson vs. Katsunori Kikuno
James Krause vs. Jamie Varner

Preliminary Card (FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET)
Michael Chiesa vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Chris Holdsworth vs. Kyung Ho Kang
Mitch Clarke vs. Al Iaquinta
Anthony Njokuani vs. Vinc Pichel


Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass, 6:30 p.m. ET)Yves Edwards vs. Piotr Hallmann
Doo Ho Choi vs. Sam Sicilia
Jingliang Li vs. Danny Mitchell

Needs a strong main event adding because that card is seriously weak. At least the fight is only pushed back two months though and not 6+ months or something.

 

[Deezy]

"knee sugery" taking two months for recovery? Most likely got knocked out in sparring, 30 days of recovery and another month for training camp.

Call Nick Diaz to face Tyron Woodley for the interim Welterweight title because Hendricks is a nobody and already hurt.

 

[Slim]

Didn't Belfort need like a couple of months or something to get his body right for the title fight? I dunno... but mannnn this sucks. They better have a good main event.

 

[Dale]

So Hendo wants in against Machida at 173.. I would have thought that Dana might have gone with this had the fight not been pushed bac just 2 months. Don't think he wants to fuck up everything now by doing this.

 

[Slim]

He fought Machida last year and looked terrible against him. Machida is just wayyyyy too quick for him.

 

[Deezy]

Rematch with Jake Shields.

 

[Slim]

Think Hendo can still drop down to middleweight?

 

[Deezy]

Probably not, but what is Jake Shields left to do? Nowhere near title contention and his contract needs names to justify it. Cathweight of 190.

 

[Slim]

I'd say move Jake back up to middleweight. That's where he shined big time for most of his career before he came to UFC and they were like... hey we're going to drop you to welterweight.

But then Middleweight... well other than Machida, Souza, and Belfort not sure who is next in line. I'd be interested to see how Shields does in that weight class again cause he did have one fight there and it looked so natural.

Catchweight would be interesting. Just how would Jake move with that much weight on him.

 

[Dale]

Just a little update on Weidman

UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman will undergo minor surgery on both of his knees on Tuesday, according to a report from Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight.

The injury to Weidman's left knee stems from a lingering issue from Weidman's high school days, in which his lateral meniscus would lock in the joint and cause him severe pain. According to Weidman, the problem recurred twice over the past week, lasting upwards of 10 to 15 minutes in the most recent instance, which led him to seek the advice of doctors and ultimately schedule an arthroscopic scope procedure to clean up the tear.

Weidman also plans to undergo similar surgery to clean up and repair a meniscal tear in his right knee.

Altogether, Weidman anticipates a four-week rehabilitation period before he can return to active training, although he expects to be able to walk out of surgery under his own power.

 

[Deezy]

Would not be surprised if he pulls out of this fight.

 

[Slim]

So I guess that could mean a further delay in the title fight?

So is Machida just going to sit around and wait? Most likely.