Zahabi: "No chance of Penn vs MacDonald moving to UFC 153"

Cat--Smasher · 08-07-2012, 09:51 AM

Quote:

“He was sparring and one of the sparring partners did a spinning backfist as Rory was taking him down. Rory got hit with it as he was taking him down. The strike didn’t faze him, I didn’t even notice anything until I saw the blood, Rory was just working on top of him in side-control then I saw this pool of blood, looked at Rory’s face and saw he was cut. Then I took off the headgear and I could see the cut was very severe,” he told Fighters Only today.

“The thing is, Rory’s cut is to the bone and there’s three layers of stitches. There’s stitches on the inside layer and the outside and the eyebrow. So the doctor says no contact at all for one month and that doesn’t mean he can start sparring after a month - he cant get punched there for a while, longer than a month.

“He can start to do technique and wrestling after a month but we are not planning on putting a headgear on him until the first of October. Anything before that would be too early and the chances of Rory getting a new cut would be too high, its too dangerous.

“A cut is a cut but 38 stitches is a massive cut, its not a regular cut where you get ten or twelve stitches and it heals after a few weeks. This is a massive cut, it went internal, all the way to the bone. So you could see the bone of his skull after he got cut.

“That’s why there’s so many stitches - 38 over three layers, that’s why he cant even have any contact at all for one month. Can’t even drill. And after a month he can start technical movements - armlocks and toeholds on the ground, wrestling manoeuvres.

“But he cant get punched. It will be another month a half before we put a headgear on him. And by put a headgear on him I mean making him box. Because if we get another punch on it, its going to reopen. So it will be a while before we can get the headgear on him.”

If MacDonald isn’t back into full-contact sparring until October 1 then it would of course preclude his fighting on October 13. But Penn seems fairly adamant he doesn’t want the fight to happen in Montreal either and so unless it gets moved to a mutually agreeable date, Penn might end up taking another opponent. Would that bother the TriStar team?

“I want what the UFC wants. As a trainer I will let Rory fight whoever he wants and Rory will fight whoever the UFC wants, BJ will fight whoever the UFC wants. So, I believe its a match the UFC wants but whatever works out, you know?” says Zahabi.

“I think its a great fight, I was excited for that fight, but its the UFC that chooses what happens. I don’t have any power over that.”

In the meantime, with MacDonald joining St. Pierre on the off-duty list, Zahabi has some time to spend on his newly-launched Fund-A-Fighter project, which Fighters Only recently detailed. Zahabi says it is already meeting with success and there is a waiting list of names looking to get involved.

“Yeah its going really well. Joey Gambino is halfway to his target and we have two UFC world champions joining FundAFighter soon, we are just finalising contracts. We have a lot of big names that want to jump in and give it a try so we are really excited about that - look out for that in the Fall.”

Zahabi: "No chance of Penn vs MacDonald moving to UFC 153" - Fighters Only

disposableassassin · 08-07-2012, 10:07 AM

i'm still pissed about this. man i hate reading news of fighter a is injured and no longer fighting fighter b. seems like these stories are coming out every few days lately.

Mr. Cornute · 08-07-2012, 10:51 AM

Why would you announce directly where the cut is & how severe it is?
Would this not be a potential target for every smart fighter to pick away at during a fight, aim for the eye in this certian spot to make it look as he's taking more damage than what he is.

Ashy Larry · 08-07-2012, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Cornute

Why would you announce directly where the cut is & how severe it is?
Would this not be a potential target for every smart fighter to pick away at during a fight, aim for the eye in this certian spot to make it look as he's taking more damage than what he is.

I think it would be obvious where the cut is with the 38 stitches and all

LukeSalvatore · 08-07-2012, 11:38 AM

Besides, ideally he doesn't fight again until he is healed, so if you know where it is or not it shouldn't matter very much.

Sniggles · 08-07-2012, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Cornute

Why would you announce directly where the cut is & how severe it is?
Would this not be a potential target for every smart fighter to pick away at during a fight, aim for the eye in this certian spot to make it look as he's taking more damage than what he is.

Lol. When the eye is healed.... every fighter aims for the face but not every fighter succeeds.