(Yep, that’s what it looks like about four hours before you acquire a nasty virus.)

Fresh off the news that the youth of Germany will be denied their chance to see UFC 99 in Cologne’s Lanxess Arena, the event has now received another blow: the loss of Heath Herring.  

Okay, so it’s not that big a blow.  Herring was scheduled to take on Cain Velasquez but is now reportedly sidelined with an unnamed illness (just to speculate irresponsibly, we’re going to say it’s either swine flu or whooping cough) and is unable to train, which has knocked him out of contention for the June 13 event in Germany.  The question now is, what happens to Velasquez?  And, to lesser extent, is Herring just faking it since he refuses to fight in front of a crowd without any children in it?

Fanhouse is floating the idea that Velasquez face Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, who’s making his return to the Octagon after a seriously disappointing first run and is currently rumored to be facing the decidedly mediocre Mostapha Al-Turk.  That’s one way to go, though the UFC has seemed somewhat protective of the bright prospect they have in Velasquez and might not want to throw him in against “Cro Cop” when the guy only has five fights under his belt.

Since Al-Turk was originally scheduled to take on Todd Duffee before all this “Cro Cop” talk started, the UFC could just mix and match opponents and have Velasquez face Duffee while Al-Turk faces “Cro Cop.”  Or Velasquez could face “Cro Cop” and Duffee could fight Al-Turk as originally planned.  Or they could all put their car keys in one big bowl and see whose keys they fish out at the end of the night.  Is this getting weird yet?  Yeah, probably.  But that’s what happens when Heath Herring comes down with the yellow fever.