BROCK LESNAR WITHDRAWS FROM RESCHEDULED FIGHT DATE DUE TO ILLNESS

For such a tough, physically imposing guy UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar sure has a puny immune system.  On Wednesday, the promotion announced that his rescheduled title defense against Shane Carwin that had been set for UFC 108 in January had been postponed indefinitely due to a lingering illness.  The UFC has been hit by a spate of injuries to top stars in recent weeks that has forced a frequent reshuffling of their forthcoming events, but none is as significant as Lesnar who is their top PPV draw among the mainstream public and casual MMA fans.

The Carwin/Lesnar fight was originally scheduled for UFC 106 in November, but that was scrapped several weeks ago.  At that time, it was reported that Lesnar had been suffering from severe flu like symptoms that some speculated were the H1N1 ‘Swine Flu’ virus.  The bout was tentatively rescheduled for UFC 108, which the promotion had originally hoped to make into a ‘supercard’ with Anderson Silva defending his middleweight championship against Vitor Belfort and a rematch of the controversial Lyoto Machida/Shogun Rua fight.  Unfortunately, injuries to Silva and Machida have forced those bouts to be scrapped as well.

According to the Lesnar camp, their fighter is suffering from mononucleosis and has been unable to train.   With a mid November window to get in a six week training camp rapidly closing, there simply wasn’t enough time to get over the illness, recover from the loss of energy and stamina and get back into fighting shape.   No date has been given for the third try at the Lesnar/Carwin match, only that the UFC hopes to make it happen in early 2010.

It’s the third fight postponement that Shane Carwin has been forced to endure in recent months.  He was initially scheduled to meet undefeated Cain Velasquez in a #1 contenders match at UFC 104, but became a beneficiary of the UFC’s sparse talent at heavyweight and their desire to get their big money maker Lesnar back into action.  He was offered the championship bout at UFC 106 and then agreed to the postponement when that was pushed back to January.  He’s now been in training for the better part of six months without actually having the opportunity to fight.

To the UFC’s credit, they’ve acted quickly to put together an entertaining card for UFC 108 in marked contrast to some of their recent PPV snoozefests.  The tentative main event is a battle between Rashad Evans and Thiago Silva to determine the next challenger for Lyoto Machida’s light heavyweight title.  On the undercard, there are a number of reports that suggest that a heavyweight contender matchup between Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be added to the event.    Still, the continued absence of Lesnar hurts the UFC’s bottom line as he’s currently the promotion’s biggest box office and PPV draw.  The UFC can put on a very good card without him, but they won’t draw his legion of fanboys and WWE pro wrestling crossover viewers that allowed the promotion to do record business for his last octagon appearance.