(“I’ll see you in November. Keep my belt warm.”)

Bellator’s first foray into the Canadian MMA market has taken a major hit.

According to the Chicago-based promotion,  highly touted Brazilian featherweight Patricio “Pitbull” Freire has been forced to withdraw from a planned July 23 rematch with champ Joey Warren at Bellator 47 in Rama, Ontario, Canada due to a hand injury, leaving them scrambling to find a main event bout for the show in less than three weeks.

Freire confirmed the news via Twitter today along with a photo”Pitbull” tweeted of his injured paw.

(“The truth is I hurt it slapping my TV when they showed Chael Sonnen during the UFC 132 telecast.”)

“Now that Bellator made it official, it’s true. I won’t be able to fight Warren this month. Saturday I heard it will take me 4 months to be able to fight again. I’m already focused on recovering as fast as I can so I can have my shot at the belt. I have fractures on my thumb of the left hand, and ligament injuries, that’s why it may take so long for me to get back in the cage. I will spend 6 weeks with my hand immobilized, and than at least one month of physical therapy, depending on my progression,” he explained. “And then I will be able to get back to training, lightly at first, but the doctor said I could be able to fight by the end of November. @BellatorMMA I will try my hardest to get back in there as soon as possible. Tell Joe I’m coming for him by the end of the year! Thanks everyone for the support, I’ll do everything to recover as soon as possible and get that belt.”

The good news is that the pair will likely meet before the end of the year. The bad news is that the highly anticipated bout will not happen at the Rama event and that a replacement bout won’t have the same punch.