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Jon Jones, rash of injuries leave UFC in flux ahead of marquee events

The American Kickboxing Academy, the San Jose home to UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and a host of the sport’s top contenders, was the subject of a recent Dana White rant on UFC training-camp injuries.

"Some of the camps are still in the stone ages and need to be brought up to date," the UFC president recently said. "AKA is one of those places. You've got Cain Velasquez, our heavyweight champion, who's always hurt. Those guys go to war every day.”

While AKA was the specific target of White’s wrath, the gym may as well have served as a surrogate for the UFC boss’ frustrations over the ongoing battle with injuries and out-of-competition issues that wreak havoc on the company’s fight schedule.

The latest round of card shuffling came about this week. First was Jon Jones’ headline-creating mishap, in which he is alleged to have injured a pregnant woman in a hit-and-run accident in New Mexico. That caused the UFC to indefinitely suspend Jones, strip him of the UFC light heavyweight title he had held for four years, and pull him from his scheduled UFC 187 main event against Anthony Johnson on May 23 in Las Vegas.

(Getty)
(Getty)

Then, a highly anticipated UFC 187 lightweight contender fight between crowd favorite Donald Cerrone and undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov was scrapped when Nurmagomedov, an AKA fighter, aggravated a knee injury. Nurmagomedov has not fought since defeating current UFC lightweight champ Raphael dos Anjos on April 19, 2014, and will be sidelined up to six more months following surgery. Grinder John Makdessi stepped in to take Nurmagomedov’s place at UFC 187.

The adjustments to the upcoming event at MGM Grand continues a troublesome trend. The UFC has put on 13 events thus far in 2015, the most recent being UFC 186 on April 25 in Montreal. In nine of those shows, the advertised main event and/or co-feature bout was changed. That doesn’t count cancelations to other fights in non-feature positions.

While there has been a variety of reasons for the changes -- a UFC 186 fight between Rory MacDonald and Hector Lombard was scrapped, for instance, because Lombard was suspended after failing a UFC 182 post-fight drug test -- training injuries remain the key reason fights get postponed. Among the higher-profile changes, the original UFC 184 main event between middleweight champion Chris Weidman and challenger Vitor Belfort was scrapped, as was the scheduled UFC 186 headliner, a rematch between bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw and former champ Renan Barao.

Yet, while the constant flow of fighters on and off cards has continued unabated, the issue no longer seems as front-and-center as it once was. Why the seeming lack of urgency?

Maybe it’s a simple matter of luck of the draw. While the fallouts have continued, most of the biggest fights involving the biggest names have gone off as planned. Jones’ megafight against Daniel Cormier proceeded as scheduled on Jan. 3. So did Conor McGregor’s Boston bout with Dennis Siver in Boston on January 19. Ditto for Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz at UFC 183. Likewise, whether by design or by happenstance, the UFC has as often as not had a solid backup plan lined up when big fights have fallen out.

When Weidman vs. Belfort fell through, Ronda Rousey vs. Cat Zingano, the night’s original co-feature, was bumped into the main event status. The hype around Rousey, fighting in her hometown of Los Angeles against an undefeated opponent, drew more buzz than the original headliner. UFC 187, likewise, will now feature the top two contenders for the light heavyweight title, Cormier and Johnson, and still has the rescheduled Weidman-Belfort fight on tap as a co-feature.

Maybe the injury issue doesn’t quite resonate as it once did because the UFC’s become more adept at adjusting on the fly. Or perhaps fans have simply accepted this condition as the new normal in a world in which the UFC puts on near-weekly shows.

But that doesn’t mean the UFC won’t continue to search for a solution. Velasquez, whose injury woes kicked off White’s tangent, is scheduled to return to action on June 13 in Mexico City, where he’ll meet interim champ Fabricio Werdum.

Werdum holds that interim belt because Velasquez had to pull out of their first fight date, on Nov. 15, which was caused by ongoing knee issues.

The 32-year-old Velasquez has superstar potential. He’s 14-1. His only loss, to Junior dos Santos, happened when he got tagged with the first big blow of the fight. He avenged that loss, then won a trilogy fight.

Jon Jones (R) grapples with Daniel Comier during their light heavyweight title fight. (Getty)
Jon Jones (R) grapples with Daniel Comier during their light heavyweight title fight. (Getty)

But injuries have dogged him. A shoulder separation kept him out 13 months before he returned and lost to dos Santos in 2011. He hasn’t appeared since his final win over dos Santos, on Oct. 19, 2013, due to his knee issues. If Velasquez makes it to Mexico City in one piece, it will be nearly 19 months between appearances.

There’s no easy solution. For one thing, the sport is decentralized. While the answer of making practices safer seem obvious, there’s simply no way a fighter can reach an elite level without facing simulated, full-on fight situations in training camp. In turn, in such a decentralized sport, there’s no way for a promoter to monitor everything that goes on daily inside hundreds of gyms scattered all over the world.”

For his part, White said the UFC is doing all that it can on its end to make the sport more sage.

"We're working on how to try to fix things like that," he said. “Obviously educating the fighters on training better, training safer. We're building a new headquarters in Las Vegas. We break ground in June and it will be done the following June in 2016. We're building a huge facility for rehab and therapy.”

Until then, fans are best advised that the “card subject to change” disclaimer on event advertising is there for a reason.

Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davedoylemma