Anna Kournikova
Hayden Panettiere
Cameron Diaz
UFC president Dana White confirmed on Wednesday newly minted heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez has an injured shoulder and will be riding the pine for six to eight months.
“Yep, it’s true,” White told with MMAFighting following today’s UFC 125 pre-fight press conference.
Velasquez posted four minutes and 12 seconds of perfection against Brock Lesnar at UFC 121 to capture the belt. The Mexican-American owns a perfect 9-0 record and has finished all but one of his victims before the final horn.
According to Josh Gross of ESPN, Velasquez has a torn rotator cuff. The 265-pound king suffered the injury during the Lesnar scrap this past October. Team Cain are currently seeking 2nd & 3rd opinions regarding surgery.
White was visibly bummed when confirming the news, but was hopeful for a summer of 2011 return.
Junior dos Santos has next dibs at the title and will likely sit the bench until the champion comes back.Why not? Rashad Evans is doing it.
Heavyweights Brendan Schaub and Mirko Cro Cop are reportedly set to square off on the pay-per-view main card at “UFC 128: Shogun vs. Evans” on March 19 in Newark, New Jersey, according to Fighters Only.
The matchup comes just one day after rumors that Schaub was pulled from a fight with Frank Mir to face Stefan Struve at UFC on Versus 3, while Cro Cop recently said he was planning to return to the Octagon soon.
Schaub (7-1) topped Gabriel Gonzaga in October for his third-straight UFC win after falling to Roy Nelson in the finals of The Ultimate Fighter 10, while Cro Cop (27-8-2) looks to rebound from a third-round KO to Mir at September’s UFC 119 that snapped a two-fight win streak.
The UFC 128 fight card is headlined by light heavyweight champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. former title-holder Rashad Evans.
For the latest UFC 128 news and UFC 128 rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Mirko Cro Cop
A last-minute deal with Ion TV will see Saturday’s Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares, Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens, and Josh Grispi vs. Dustin Poirier UFC 125 prelims air at 9pm ET on what will technically be the UFC’s network debut.
UFC President Dana White told MMAjunkie the broadcast was meant to pay back fans and hinted the 100-million home channel could become a regular broadcast partner, potentially joining the likes of Spike and Versus.
UFC Prelims, a one-hour broadcast featuring a pair of live undercard fights, debuted on Spike in 2009 and continued through 2010 before UFC pay-per-views, while UFC.com aired UFC 124′s prelims earlier this month. The popular series was expected to continue in 2011, but no details have been announced.
The UFC 125 prelims will also air live in Canada on Sportsnet at 9pm ET.
For complete UFC 125 coverage and UFC 125 results this Saturday stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Phil Baroni