UFC 76 Loses Fight After Gouveia Injury
Wilson Gouveia
(Pictures) was forced to remove
himself from a light heavyweight showdown at UFC 76 with Jason Lambert (Pictures) due to a severely broken nose
suffered while training for the Sept. 22 card, Sherdog.com reported
Monday.
As first revealed on Monday's edition of The Savage Dog Show, sources from the American Top Team, including trainer Ricardo Liborio (Pictures), told Sherdog.com that Gouveia (9-4-0) faces surgery in the next two weeks. He is targeting a return to action sometime in early 2008.
With less than two weeks remaining before the scheduled bout, the UFC was unable to secure a replacement opponent for Lambert (23-6-0) and ultimately decided to pare the event down to eight contests.
Both James Lee (James Lee' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures) and Travis Wiuff (Pictures) were rumored to be possible replacements before the fight was eventually scrapped altogether.
Lambert won't walk away empty-handed. According to his manager, Matt Stansell (Pictures) of North County Fight Club, the UFC will still pay "The Punisher" his contracted show money, and the Californian is first in line if one of the card's other 205-pound fighters falls off due to injury.
As first revealed on Monday's edition of The Savage Dog Show, sources from the American Top Team, including trainer Ricardo Liborio (Pictures), told Sherdog.com that Gouveia (9-4-0) faces surgery in the next two weeks. He is targeting a return to action sometime in early 2008.
With less than two weeks remaining before the scheduled bout, the UFC was unable to secure a replacement opponent for Lambert (23-6-0) and ultimately decided to pare the event down to eight contests.
Both James Lee (James Lee' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures) and Travis Wiuff (Pictures) were rumored to be possible replacements before the fight was eventually scrapped altogether.
Lambert won't walk away empty-handed. According to his manager, Matt Stansell (Pictures) of North County Fight Club, the UFC will still pay "The Punisher" his contracted show money, and the Californian is first in line if one of the card's other 205-pound fighters falls off due to injury.
