UFC 198’s star-studded main card has taken a last minute hit with Anderson Silva having to pull out of his fight with Uriah Hall after suffering from stomach pains.
Silva was rushed to hospital on Tuesday just hours before he was set to travel to Curitiba from Rio De Janeiro. He later returned home, but then had to return after admitting to his coach, Luiz Carlos Dorea that “the pain is too much,” according to MMAFighting.com.
According to Dorea, Silva has had abdominal pain before, but it had always gone away the next day. On this occasion that proved not to be the case however, and physicians have now diagnosed him with having acute cholecystitis – an inflammation of the gall bladder.
As a result, Silva will now undergo surgery to remove his gall bladder, with the current expectation being that he could be clear to train in 4-6 weeks.
The 41 year-old Silva has led a charmed life for much of his UFC career, ruling the middleweight division for many years and becoming widely recognized as one of the greatest fighters ever to set foot in the Octagon.
However, for one reason or another, the last few years have not been kind to him, with his first KO loss to Chris Weidman being the catalyst for a dark period in his life. After that he would break his leg in their rematch, test positive for steroids upon his return to action over a year later, lose to Michael Bisping earlier this year, and now have to unexpectedly undergo gall bladder surgery less than a week before his fight on the biggest UFC event in Brazil to date.
Meanwhile, UFC officials are currently scrambling to source an opponent to keep Uriah Hall on Saturday night’s show.
Silva bowing out of the event will no doubt be a major disappointment for the 40,000+ fans who will be packing into a football stadium in Curitiba, Brazil to watch UFC 198, but the good news is that it’s still a remarkably stacked card that’ll include Fabricio Werdum Vs Stipe Miocic, Vitor Belfort Vs ‘Jacare’ Souza, ‘Shogun Rua’ Vs Corey Anderson, Cris ‘Cyborg’ Vs Leslie Smith, Demain Maia Vs Matt Brown and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira Vs Pat Cummins.
