The UFC’s injury crisis has struck again with former Middleweight title contender Nate Marquardt being forced to pull out from his welterweight debut against Rick Story due to an undisclosed medical issue. There is as yet no word on what the medial issue is although the obvious assumption to make would be that Marquardt ran into problems with his weight cut. However, according to various media outlets Marquardt’s camp have made it clear that its temporary and that his future lies at 170Ibs. Maybe he just really wanted to watch Spike’s marathon broadcast of his fights.
Cheick Kongo vs Pat Barry has been promoted to the main event spot with Rick Story now facing Charlie Brenneman. To me having Story face Brenneman is a mistake, Story is hardly a household name and taking on Brenneman does little for him and risks one of the few possible future challengers for Georges St. Pierre losing a nothing match against an even lesser known opponent. With well-known fighters such as Joe Stevenson and Tyson Griffin fighting on the prelim-card they could easily have promoted either’s featherweight debut to the main card and gave Rick Story the night off.
