Jon Fitch has had to withdrew from his rematch with BJ Penn that was scheduled to co-main event UFC 132 due to injury. While there has been no word on what the injury is its believed to be serious and one that may keep the erstwhile welterweight contender out of action for some time.
Speculation has now turned to who BJ Penn will face at UFC 132. Carlos Condit is the most obvious replacement, with the Greg Jackson coached fighter being on a three fight winning streak. Condit was due to face Chris Lytle but had to himself withdraw due to injury. Funnily enough Condit has been very quick to say that he would be willing to face Penn in what at the very least will be a final title eliminator and could still become a championship match if Georges St. Pierre was to vacate after UFC 129. Should Condit be overlooked then its hard to see who else the UFC could turn to from the ranks of the welterweight division with no other contenders really ready to face Penn.
Its possible that somebody from middleweight could drop down to face the former lightweight champion, with Nate Marquardt being an obvious candidate after talking about a possible move to 170Ibs after beating Dan Miller at UFC 128. Equally a move down in weight would revitalise the career of Yoshihiro Akiyama, with the Asian superstar has repeatedly came up short in the UFC due to be undersized. The real surprise would be if the UFC was to reach into Strikeforce’s ranks to do the first cross-promotional match. However the only welterweight that would mean anything is champion Nick Diaz and one would think that they wouldn’t bring Diaz in unless it was a championship match.
Whatever the UFC decides to do it has to be a high-profile match to help bolster the marketablity of the first pay per view to feature a bantamweight title match.
