The injury ravaged UFC 149 card is finally in our rear-view mirror, but unfortunately the curse continues as Ben Rothwell has now been forced to bail out of his ‘UFC On FOX 4’ main card fight with Travis Browne next weekend.
That’s left the UFC scrambling for a quick replacement, but unfortunately it turns out their first idea to ship in Matt Mitrione didn’t work out, with the former TUF fighter turning down the opportunity as he isn’t currently in the kind of shape he needs to be to fight a high-level contender like Browne.
Instead the UFC are now left in the undesirable position of having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for an opponent and that appears to have left them with former Strikeforce fighter Devin Cole.
If it does prove to be Cole then this will be his debut for the promotion and comes after a two-fight winning streak, including a notable win over current UFC fighter Shawn Jordan.
This is far from an ideal match-up though given that Cole is essentially unknown and is about to be propelled into a bout scheduled to be watched by millions live on FOX.
While he’s ended up with what, on paper at least, is an easier opponent, this isn’t good news for Browne either given that he is currently unbeaten in five fights in the UFC and was looking to put together wins over bigger name opponents in order to aid his chances of getting a title shot.
For the record, Rothwell’s injury isn’t believed to be serious and he could be back in training within a few weeks so expect to see him slotted into one of the UFC’s other upcoming shows in the next few months.
