Lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos has apologized to his fans after being forced to pull out his highly anticipated title defense against Conor McGregor at UFC 196 with less than two weeks to go until fight night due to a broken foot.
“Sorry to all my real fans and @ufc,I never cancel any fight due to injury but accidents happen #Jesus #truechampion,” Dos Anjos wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Dos Anjos’ coach Rafael Cordeiro has detailed exactly how the injury came about.
“Unfortunately, an injury happened in his last training Friday,” Cordeiro told MMAFighting.com. “We were sparring, and Rafael threw a kick at the knee of the kid that was training with him. He immediately stopped kicking, put his foot on the ground, and felt a little pain. He put some ice, and couldn’t walk normally.
“He put more ice during the weekend to see if he would be able to train on Monday. On Monday, he contacted the UFC and said what happened. He asked to visit the UFC’s doctor, and they showed the fracture.”
With Dos Anjos out the UFC have now moved quickly to find a replacement with Dana White announcing on ESPN last night that Nate Diaz will now fight Conor McGregor at welterweight in the main event on March 5th in Las Vegas.
