Matt Serra Out Of UFC 79 With Injury

UFC Welterweight Champion Matt "The Terra" Serra, shown here with a pre-fight erection, has had to withdraw from his UFC 79 title fight with Matt Hughes due to injury. An MRI revealed herniated discs in his lower back preventing him from further training for the December 29 match up.

"This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Serra said in a statement on UFC.com. "I've never had a back injury before; I could hardly get off of the MRI table. There is no way I can train through this, and I'm devastated, especially because this was such an important fight. I was looking forward to fighting Matt Hughes. All my training was going phenomenally until Monday. All I can do now is to get better and to fight again as soon as possible."

Matt Hughes responded with the class he was once known for saying, "I believe Serra is actually hurt, so I don’t think this is just a ploy not to fight. Before my Royce fight, I had three bulged discs that I was able to repair enough to fight. As everybody knows you never go into a fight 100%. So, I’m just going to continue to train until I find out what’s next."

The UFC has not named a replacement for the Co-Main Event and it isn't even sure that Matt Hughes would accept a different fight. There are possible replacements if an agreement can be reached.

• Georges St. Pierre (14-2), the former Welterweight Champ is coming off a victory over Josh Koscheck in August so he would be healthy and we could conclude the GSP/Hughes rivalry with the inevitable "rubber match" coming as an early X-Mas gift for the fans. Is GSP in shape and ready for this fight would be the question.
• Jon Fitch (15-2) is coming off an October win over Diego Sanchez and has stated many times he would love to fight Matt Hughes.
• Thiago Alves (13-3) name has also been thrown around after his TKO (cut) win over Chris Lyle, though he did suffer a swollen eye and the fight wasn't very long ago. Also, Thiago isn't even ranked in the Welterweight Top 10.

Karo Parisyan was promised a title shot against Hughes years ago but suffered a broken hand in his recent fight with Ryo Chonan. Josh Koscheck is coming off a loss to GSP and Diego Sanchez is also coming off a loss to Fitch, and possibly going down in weight to 155 lbs. so neither seems a likely candidate.

Its up to the UFC and Matt Huges now and time is of the essence as there are currently 36 days to train for the possible bout. There is a great opportunity for any fighter to step up and face the greatest Welterweight of all time on a mega PPV card.