Giga Chikadze has had to pull out of his fight with Josh Emmett at UFC 296 in Las Vegas on December 16th after suffering a groin injury in training.
video footage of the moment Chikadze tore his groin during a sparring session has been released online, showing him throw a body kick and then immediately dropping to the canvas afterwards in obvious distress.
“Sh*t happens! Tore groin! I’ll be back soon!” Chikadze wrote.
Sh*t happens! Tore groin! I’ll be back soon! pic.twitter.com/ABMggWhHdM
— GIGACHAD (@giga_chikadze) December 5, 2023
The 35-year-old Chikadze had been hoping to end the year by building on his decision win over Alex Caceres back in August, which had taken him to 8-1 in his UFC run so far, but now he’ll need to wait until 2024 to step back into the Octagon.
As for Emmett, he’s already putting out the feelers for a potential late-replacement match-up to stay on the UFC 296 card as he attempts to dig himself out of a two-fight losing slump before the end of the year.
Emmett had fought Yair Rodriguez for the interim 135lb title back in February, but had lost by submission, and subsequently suffered a unanimous decision loss to Ilia Topuria in June, which set his opponent up for a title shot that’ll take place early next year.
