UFC 161 on June 15th may be in need of a new main event after reports last night from Brazil that interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao has injured his foot.
The news first broke on the TATAME site with MMAJunkie later reporting that Barao will undergo a medical on Monday to establish whether he’ll be able to fight or not.
Barao was scheduled to defend his interim title against Eddie Wineland at the show in Winnepeg, Canada, but with less than a month to go until the event takes place the chances of this now occuring are slim.
The only good news here is that the card actually already has two strong candidates to take over the main event slot, with both Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua Vs Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Dan Henderson Vs Rashad Evans also booked for the main card.
Id expect ‘Shogun’ Vs ‘Lil Nog’ to be promoted to a five round fight and also look for Tyron Woodley Vs Jake Shields to be moved up from the prelims to the main card to make up the numbers. Depending on the severity of the injury, it may well be that Barao Vs Wineland gets pushed back to a later date.
That’s all just speculation at this point though so look for official word to emerge next week.
