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A UFC Fight Night 19 preliminary-card bout could be scratched following an injury suffered by Kyle Bradley. A source close to the lightweight fighter informed MMAjunkie about the injury, which forced Bradley (14-6 MMA, 1-2 UFC) out of a scheduled bout with Sam Stout (14-5-1 MMA, 3-4 UFC).
However, the UFC has yet to officially pull the card from the September 19 lineup, which takes place at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. The event, which serves as a lead-in for the debut episode of “The Ultimate Fighter 10,” airs on Spike TV.
Because the event already featured 11 fights, the fight could be canceled altogether with Stout shifted to a later card without any replacement for Bradley. Bradley last fought in May in a UFC 98 TKO win over “The Ultimate Fighter 8″ finalist Phillipe Nover, who contested the stoppage. Regardless, the win was Bradley’s first in three UFC appearances. Prior to his UFC debut, Bradley had earned six-straight victories in smaller organizations.
While UFC Fight Night 19 will have some loss due to its fighter getting injured, the Strikeforce at the other hand too has an injured fighter and out of the September 25 Strikeforce headliner with Tim Kennedy.
An injury has forced middleweight Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos (16-13) out of a scheduled September 25 Strikeforce Challengers main event with Tim Kennedy (10-2). Strikeforce executive Mike Afromowitz today told that Strikeforce had learned of the injury over the weekend (when Evangelista’s wife, Cris “Cyborg” Santos, defeated Gina Carano for Strikeforce’s 145-pound women’s title) and that the search is underway for a replacement.
The injury was first reported by The Fight Network, citing a source close to Showtime. The upcoming event, set to air on Showtime, takes place at the SpiritBank Event Center in Bixby, Oklahoma.
Although the event is only about a month away, the only other fight currently booked for the card, which is the third held under the recently established “Strikeforce Challengers” series, is Paul Bradley (11-1) vs. Zak Cummings (10-0). “We’ll have a lot more fights soon,” Afromowitz said. “We know the event is coming up soon (and is) only about a month away.”
Santos, a veteran of organizations such as Cage Rage and PRIDE, was set to make his second Strikeforce appearance at the upcoming event. The Brazilian, though, has struggled lately with four losses in his past five fights, including a close split-decision defeat to Joey Villasenor at Strikeforce’s June event.
The extent of his injury is currently not known, though Afromowitz said the organization hopes to have him back in the organization by year’s end. Kennedy, meanwhile, enters the fight with 10 wins in his past 11 fights, the lone blemish coming to notable Jason “Mayhem” Miller in late 2007. The IFL veteran recently made his Strikeforce debut and scored a second-round submission victory over Nick Thompson in June.
