Brock Lesnar Leaves The UFC Heavyweight Title Scene In Flux

The UFC has been suffering though the most injuries to top MMA talent ever seen this past year, and it ain't getting any better.

Middleweight Champion Anderson "Spider" Silva is out with elbow surgery until next year as is Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida with a hand injury. Frightening Heavyweight prospect Todd Duffee has pulled out of his next bout with an undisclosed injury while Thiago Alves suffered a knee injury and cannot rematch Jon Fitch. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira cannot fight Cain Velasquez because his staff infection has returned while Mark Coleman is also on the shelf until 2010 but luckily nobody cares.

Finally, the biggest draw in the company and the Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar is out of commission and possibly out of the sport altogether. Originally Lesnar pulled out of his bout with Shane Carwin at UFC 106 due to the H1N1 virus that had sickened him for 3 weeks and halted his training camp. So the UFC rescheduled his fight for UFC 108 in January only to have the rumor change from the swine flu to mononucleosis. Then came the surprising news that Brock Lesnar as out of the title fight and out of fighting until further notice.

Dana White said,"Lesnar collapsed while spending time on a retreat in Canada and was checked into a hospital. [Lesnar] is in bad shape, and the reality is they don't really know all that's wrong with him," White said. "He owns a bunch of property in Canada. He went up to Canada just to get away from his house, to go up there and just kind of chill out up there."

"He [expletive] dropped. He went down, and he had to go to the hospital. They ran every test on the planet on him, and they ended up finding out something else was wrong with him."
“He’s in a hospital up in North Dakota somewhere right now,” explained Dana. “He went to Canada and some bad stuff happened to him, so we’ve got to figure it out.
“He doesn’t want to talk about it publicly, but he’s in bad shape. He’s not well and he’s not going to be getting well anytime soon.”
When asked if Lesnar’s current problem’s cant be attributed to the recent report of mononucleosis, White wouldn’t limit it to that alone, explaining, “He has other problems too. He is not good. He is very, very sick and he’s going to be out for a while.”
According to the UFC President, there’s no question about it; the situation is one for concern, and there are stills questions that need answering. “I am worried about it,” explained White. “You know, I can’t really talk about it right now, but he’s in rough shape. He’s in really bad shape. We’re going to have to do some stuff to take care of this guy. He is not well and he’s not getting any better."

The gossip rag TMZ is reporting White told their website, that Brock was currently suffering from an intestinal disorder that will require major surgery. Dana also added rather cryptically, "There's a possibility Lesnar will never fight again."

Who knows what is really happening because I trust the word of Blaf and TMZ about as much as I trust Denis Kang not to quit in a fight. Maybe Brock is in real trouble, but maybe White is covering up something else and looking to hype up the sports biggest draw and his climactic return. Either way, I'm more interested in what we do with the Heavyweight title scene.

Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin seem to be the top 2 contenders but Shane won't be ready to fight until after UFC 108 for a possible Interim title. Junior Dos Santos and Gabriel Gonzaga makes sense for the 3 and 4 spots and they will meet at UFC 108. Both Frank Mir and Cheick Kongo are coming off losses but a win in their UFC 107 bout would keep 1 of the men in the mix and near the top of the pecking order.

Its an odd mix to say the least, and though I am not a fan of Brock Lesnar or his childish antics, I wish him the best of health so that maybe one day we can see his full potential squashed out by the "Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko.