Raphael Assuncao has become the second major UFC bantamweight star to suffer an injury in the space of 24 hours.
Assuncao, who’s on an impressive seven fight winning streak in the Octagon, revealed on Twitter that he broke his ankle in training which will the current No.4 ranked bantamweight contender out of action for some time.
“I am devastated 2 inform that my title shot hopes will be even further delayed due 2 broken ankle suffered in training I am sorry once again,” Assuncao wrote.
The news broke soon after the division’s former champ and next title contender Dominick Cruz announced that he’d suffered yet another ACL injury and would be out indefinitely.
That leaves the top end of the 135lb ranks in disarray as we head into 2015, a year in which the UFC had hoped they could put their injury woes behind them.
Luckily for the promotion another former champion Renan Barao just made his return to the Octagon this past Saturday night with a third round submission win against Mitch Gagnon which returned him to No.1 contender status.
So, while the UFC’s initial plan had been for Cruz to fight TJ Dillashaw next for the title, they can instead now just move straight to a rematch between Dillashaw and Barao instead.
Things will get more complicated after that though as next in line is Urijah Faber who’s friends and team-mates with Dillashaw and has also suffered two prior losses to Barao.
