Last weekend, the MMA rumor mill went into overdrive when rumors quickly spread that Brock Lesnar had been seriously injured, enough to call the blockbuster UFC 91 bout against Randy Couture off. However, Josh Gross of SI.com quickly squashed that rumor. Apparently, someone called Xtreme Couture, pretending to be Lorenzo Fertitta, and said Brock was injured and the fight was off.
So it was all a hoax, and Randy and Brock are still healthy, right? Well, maybe not. Jared Barnes of Brawl Sports is now reporting that both fighters are indeed battling serious injuries.
The main event between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar at UFC 91 may be in jeopardy. According to 3 different sources that are either involved with the Lesnar or Couture camp, both fighters are currently battling serious injuries. Lesnar sustained a hamstring injury, that he’s trying to cover up and work through, and Couture is having major shoulder problems.
Obviously, if either of them are in fact seriously injured and have to withdraw, it would be a huge deal. It’s expected to break pay-per-view records, and according to internal UFC estimates, there will be an extra 250,000 buys from people who’ve never purchased a UFC pay-per-view before. It’s been said that Randy Couture could make a cool $3 million. Put simply, there’s a TON of money on the line.
Because of what’s at stake, unless the doctors prohibit them from fighting, I seriously doubt any injury is going to keep either of them from showing up. And the UFC better hope not, because outside of that fight, UFC 91 is looking pretty rough. Florian vs. Stevenson is good, but they can’t carry a pay-per-view, and with all the other shows they’re running and all the fights they already have booked, there aren’t too many options left. Putting Silva vs. Jackson III on this card may have been the wiser choice, just in case.
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I think his “sources” are not direct ones. He probably read about it on three different websites and than called them sources.
Maybe, maybe not. He said they are tied in with the fighters’ camps.
Fighters are always coming into fights with injuries though, so if the report is legit, who knows whether or not “the sources” were overstating the severity of the injuries. One of the reasons why I put the question mark in the title.
I seriously doubt either of them withdraws, for reasons he mentioned, or any others. Randy would probably fight Redbelt-style with one arm tied behind his back with a potential $3 million on the line.
I’m sure they’ll both do everything humanly possible to make sure this fight happens.