(Photo via Heavy/Fightday)

Shane Carwin never needed to fight. For the last 13 years, the former UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion has worked full-time as a design engineer, and he could have made that his entire life if he wanted to. But Carwin happened to be blessed with some extraordinary physical gifts — a level of athleticism that helped him become the NCAA Division II wrestling heavyweight national champion in 1999 while competing for Western State Colorado University, and the kind of eerie, inhuman punching-power that made him one of the most intimidating heavyweights in MMA history.

Unfortunately, Carwin’s supersonic rise to the top was derailed just as quickly as it began, first by a failed challenge against unified champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 116 — with Carwin eating his first career loss thanks to Lesnar’s unexpected resilience and a poorly-timed adrenaline dump — and then by a seemingly-endless series of injuries and surgeries. Inactive since his June 2011 decision loss to Junior Dos Santos, Carwin announced his retirement yesterday evening with a simple message on twitter: Officially retired 2day:-) thank you to my family, friends and fans! #dreambig GOD BLESS!!!

Even before he entered the UFC, Carwin was something of an urban legend, a spook story that MMA heavyweights told their kids at night. Making his professional debut in October 2005, Carwin’s first eight fights all ended in first-round stoppage victories, half by chokes, half by way of his enormous fists. During one stretch in 2006-2007, he stopped three consecutive opponents in the first minute of the fight.

In 2008, Carwin got his well-deserved invite to the UFC, where he faced Christian Wellisch at UFC 84. Here’s what happened:

(‘Tis but a scratch.)

Despite initial assumptions that Jon Jones suffered a compound fracture of his left big toe during his UFC 159 title defense against Chael Sonnen, the injury was later determined to be a dislocation. (You know, kind of like how Miesha Tate didn’t actually get her arm snapped in half by Ronda Rousey, despite all visual evidence to the contrary.) Dr. Robert Klapper, Chief Orthopedic Surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, appeared on yesterday’s installment of UFC Tonight to explain Jones’s injury, and give his insight on the recovery process, which doesn’t sound so bad, considering how ugly things looked on Saturday.

“The rehab involves, number one, you put [the toe] back into place,” Klapper said. “Line it up again. Wash out the joint because there’s lots of bad bacteria on that mat, and you need to make sure there’s no infection. The rehabilitation is just let things scar down, which they will. Because there’s no fracture of the bone — it’s just a dislocation — in six weeks it’s healed, then you start range of motion and strengthening. Back to fighting, six to eight weeks.”

Alright, so Bones is out of action for two months, tops, which means that Lyoto Machida’s proposed #1 contender bout against Alexander Gustafsson might not be necessary after all. Condolences, Lyoto.

(And here’s Nelson choking out DaMarques Johnson in his UFC debut and not giving a damn about it one way or the other. / Photo by James Law for FightDay.com)

The UFC’s most promising (and most eerily emotionless) welterweight prospect has just experienced an important rite of passage — his first injury withdrawal. As confirmed by UFC officials, Icelandic grappling phenom Gunnar Nelson will be unable to meet Mike Pyle at UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2, scheduled for May 25th in Las Vegas. According to Gunnar’s father/manager Haraldur Nelson, it’s a knee injury that will require surgery. A timetable for his return hasn’t been announced.

Injuries have actually plagued both of Nelson’s previous UFC fights. His first win in the Octagon came against DaMarques Johnson, who was replacing the injured Pascal Krauss. Nelson’s second win came against Jorge Santiago, who was replacing the injured Justin Edwards. And now, the UFC Injury Demon has gone from teasing Nelson to actually taking a chunk out of his ass, so to speak.

Replacing Nelson against Pyle at UFC 160 will be Rick Story, who most recently TKO’d Strikeforce/KOTC standout Quinn Mulhern at UFC 158 last month. Pyle is coming off a superb 2012 during which he scored first-round KO/TKOs of Ricardo Funch, Josh Neer, and James Head. Pyle vs. Story is expected to be on the FX portion of the 5/25 card.

(…and from the looks of him, he might have food-poisoning as well. Photo via FightDay/UFC)

From Vitor Belfort to Paul Taylor to Sean Sherk to James Irvin, we’ve seen our share of injury-cursed UFC fighters over the years — and now it’s time to add one more name to this dubious list. It was announced yesterday that Manny Gamburyan has suffered an undisclosed training injury and will not be able to face Hacran Dias at UFC on FX 8 (May 18th; Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil). This marks the fourth fight that Gamburyan has had to pull out of since returning to the UFC in 2011. A quick recap…

- Following the WEC’s merger with the UFC, Gamburyan was scheduled to face Raphael Assuncao at UFC 128 in March 2011, but was forced out of the match with a back injury.

- Gamburyan was scheduled to face Diego Nunes at UFC 135 in September 2011, but was forced to withdraw due to a shoulder injury.

(“It’s embarrassing, okay? Let’s just say I’ll be on penicillin for a while, and leave it at that.”)

As first reported by MMAFighting yesterday evening, UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem will be unable to fight former champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2 (May 25th, Las Vegas), due to an undisclosed injury suffered in training. No word yet on the nature or severity of the injury, although it will reportedly require 4-5 weeks of recovery. [Update: Overeem has revealed that it was a slight tear in his quad muscle.]

As soon as news of the withdrawal broke, fellow UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt tried to organize a twitter assault to claim the replacement spot against Dos Santos. However, UFC president Dana White suggested that Overeem vs. Dos Santos will simply be postponed to sometime in the summer. Ah well. Would have been nice to see this happen again.

The injury couldn’t come at a worse time for the hormonally fluctuating Overeem, who just followed up his nine-month licensing timeout with an upset knockout loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva last month. If Overeem does meet Dos Santos this summer, the fight will come a full year-and-a-half since the Reem’s last victory over Brock Lesnar in December 2011 — not a good look for a guy who spent the previous four years unbeaten.

(That’s right, DJ. Pose through the pain. / Photo via Sherdog)

Due to an undisclosed injury, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson has been forced to withdraw from his upcoming title defense against John Moraga, which was scheduled to go down at the TUF 17 Finale (April 13th, Las Vegas). At this point, it’s unclear when Johnson will be back in action, or if Moraga will remain on the card.

To make up for the loss, the UFC has booked a new fight to take the main event spot — a bantamweight scrap between Urijah Faber and Scott Jorgensen. Faber is coming off an impressive first-round submission over Ivan Menjivar at UFC 157, while Jorgensen snapped a two-fight losing skid by choking out John Albert at UFC on FOX: Henderson vs. Diaz, a performance that won him both Submission of the Night and Fight of the Night bonuses. Fun fact: Urijah Faber has gone 6-0 in his last six non-title fights, and 0-5 in his last five title fights.

The TUF 17 Finale will also feature Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Travis Browne, Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano, and probably Uriah Hall vs. some other guy from the show.

(…and if you include non-Zuffa fighters who shattered their penises last year, that number jumps up to 2,057.)

Yes, one hundred and four. Triple digits, baby. That startling figure comes to us via MMAFighting.com researcher Steve Borchardt, who tallied up all the injury pullouts by UFC and Strikeforce fighters in 2012, and fed them all into this chronological spreadsheet. (Color key: Injuries to champions are in yellow, all other main event fighters are in red, and co-mainers are in teal. Also, “KO’d by sauna floor when cutting weight” really deserves its own color. An ugly brownish-orange, perhaps.)

We’re all reasonable men and women, right? We know that this explosion in high-profile injury withdrawals can’t really be explained by a “curse,” or bad luck, or terrible coincidence. Grueling training conditions — in which MMA fighters work all year round, scrapping against elite-level teammates rather than paid sparring dummies, executing body-motions that are specifically designed to blow out your knees — has to account for most of it.

But are there other explanations? When you look at all the injuries listed as “Undisclosed” on the chart, you can’t help but speculate…

(“Aw thanks bro, these chips are so clutch. Say, you’re not an undercover cop, are you?”/ Props: CombatLifestyle)

Already smacked down by injuries to Forrest Griffin, Chris Weidman, and Gray Maynard, December 29th’s once-epic UFC 155: Dos Santos vs. Velasquez 2 card just got hit with another pair of withdrawals, less than two weeks before showtime.

First up: Cody McKenzie, the affable guillotine-choker who got gut-shot KO’d by Chad Mendes in his last appearance in July, has pulled out of his preliminary card bout with Leonard Garcia due to an undisclosed training injury. The UFC is currently searching for a replacement opponent for Garcia, who is looking to rescue his career after losing his last three matches. We’ll update you if/when Bad Boy gets a new booking. Update: Garcia will be fighting Max Holloway, who has won his last two fights against Pat Schilling and Justin Lawrence.

Speaking of undisclosed injuries, Czech wrestler Karlos Vemola is out of his main card match against Chris Leben, and will be replaced by Strikeforce vet Derek Brunson. After winning his first nine pro fights, Brunson has dropped his last two, a knockout loss to Ronaldo Souza and a decision loss to Kendall Grove. Leben vs. Brunson will remain on the UFC 155 main card, and will mark Leben’s first UFC appearance since his TKO loss to Mark Munoz in November 2011, and subsequent one-year suspension for oxycodone and oxymorphone. The Crippler is currently taking it one day at a time.

UFC 155′s bruised lineup is after the jump. Check it out, and ponder what could have been…

(At times like these, you just have to keep telling yourself, “At least I’m not Ray Elbe…at least I’m not Ray Elbe…” / Image via MiddleEasy)

Can we all just pretend that Hector Lombard‘s UFC debut against Tim Boetsch didn’t happen? The heavy-handed killer we saw run down Rousimar Palhares like a frightened deer at the TUF Smashes Finale was the guy we’ve been waiting for and expecting since he jumped over to the UFC from Bellator. But there was a reason why Lombard’s dance partner looked tentative during the match — Palhares suffered ligament damage and broken bones in his foot after throwing a kick in the opening moments. Toquinho explains:

“During the fight, my kick was working well. But soon in the first round, one of my kicks hit Lombard’s shin below his knee. I heard a snap, and I knew something bad happened. From that moment on, I [started] feeling my foot more and more numb and without strength to walk around the Octagon.”

An injury early into a match can take a fighter’s mind completely out of the competition — just ask Travis Browne. As Palhares struggled to process his body’s new limitations, he turned into a sitting duck for Lombard’s power punches, and now the Cuban is officially a factor in the middleweight division. Meanwhile, Palhares has now lost his last two UFC bouts by first-round stoppage, including his TKO defeat against Alan Belcher in May. Get well soon, Stump.

(I mean, seriously. Y’know?)

The UFC Injury Curse of 2012 has another big-name trophy to hang on its wall — Forrest Griffin, who will miss his UFC 155 main card match against Phil Davis on December 29th due to a wrecked knee. UFC president Dana White passes along the sad (but at this point completely unsurprising) news:

Forrest Has MCL tear and ACL strain. 20 cc’s of blood removed from his knee and the saga continues at the UFC!!

No word yet on whether Davis will be getting a replacement opponent at the “Dos Santos vs. Velasquez II” event, or if he’ll be pulled from the lineup. Keep in mind that Davis was himself a replacement for Chael Sonnen, who ditched his matchup against Forrest when his TUF 17 coaching opportunity came up.

We’ll update you when we hear more.

(Props: facebook.com/MichaelChiesaUFC)

Just days after UFC on Fox 5 lost its originally scheduled heavyweight bout between Brendan Schaub and Lavar Johnson when Johnson backed out due to a groin-pull, the December 8th event has lost another high-profile prelim match on short notice. The UFC announced yesterday that lightweight Michael Chiesa has been forced to withdraw from his fight against Marcus LeVesseur.

“Less than a week out from his backyard bout, Seattle’s Michael Chiesa has been forced to withdraw from UFC on FOX due to illness. The TUF Live season winner had been first slated to fight Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Rafaello ‘Tractor’ Oliveira, then lightweight Marcus LeVesseur when Oliveira was injured,” UFC.com reported.

The particular illness was not disclosed but one imagines that Chiesa would have to be awfully jacked-up to pull out of such a huge fight for himself. It would have been Chiesa’s first UFC bout since winning TUF Live at the series’ finale show last June, and he would have been fighting in front of his hometown fans in Seattle, on a FX-televised platform before a monster FOX event.

(So tell us more about this “pulled groin,” Lavar… / Photo via Maxim)

Just nine days out from UFC on FOX 5, the UFC confirmed last night that heavyweight slugger Lavar Johnson has withdrawn from his prelim meeting with Brendan Schaub due to a pulled groin. As a result, Schaub has also been removed from the card, and will not face a replacement opponent. “Frustrated would be an understatement..back to the gym,” Schaub tweeted after the news broke. The TUF 10 finalist has been inactive since April, and has lost his last two fights by knockout.

No word yet on the return dates for either fighter, or which Facebook match could potentially replace them on the FX broadcast. We’ll update you when we know more. Though the Johnson/Schaub fight was the card’s most likely candidate for a grisly knockout, UFC on FOX 5 is still loaded with the lightweight title fight between Ben Henderson and Nate Diaz, Mauricio Rua vs. Alexander Gustafsson, and Motivated Penn vs. Rory MacDonald.

(In a related story, Roy Nelson was recently diagnosed with advanced dickdo disease.)

Well, we saw this one coming a mile away. After suffering a “minor knee injury” back in September, Shane Carwin has now pulled out of his scheduled fight against Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale on December 15th, due to a knee injury that may or may not be related to the last one. UFC president Dana White confirmed the bad news last night, and said that the promotion is looking for a new opponent for Nelson.

It’s a terrible setback for Carwin, who hasn’t competed snce June 2011 due to a series of neck and back surgeries, and was already forced to drop out of a fight with Nelson at UFC 125. Carwin hasn’t won a fight since his knockout of Frank Mir in March 2010, and at age 37, his competitive days are running out. There’s no word yet on the severity of Shane’s injury, or when he might return to action.

And by the way, this means that five of the last seven U.S. seasons of TUF — 10, 11, 13, 15, and now 16 — as well as one of the two international seasons (TUF Brazil), have ended with the coaches’ fight being canceled or delayed. Spooky. We’ll let you know when Roy Nelson picks up his replacement opponent. Our suggestion: How about Pat Barry, who’s already booked on the card against Shane Del Rosario?

And hey, speaking of UFC stars who have to pull out of fights next month due to knee injuries…

(Photo via UFC.com)

Two scary injuries in one day? It looks like The Curse That Shall Not Be Named has awoken from its brief slumber.

The UFC’s latest injury victim is featherweight Eddie Yagin, who was hospitalized on Sunday for swelling around his brain, and will be unable to fight Dennis Siver at UFC on Fox 5: Henderson vs Diaz (December 8th, Seattle). MMAWeekly has the details:

The problem started on Saturday after a usual day of training, Yagin’s manager, Jason House, told MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday.

“He came home after practice, had a headache, started to vomit whatever liquids he drank and then decided to go to the ER the next day,” said House, adding that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred in training. Yagin hadn’t been knocked out or suffered from any particularly hard blows or anything of the sort.

(“Whoa, tiger-claws, huh? Alright! Well, see ya later.”)

Despite regular treatments of…ugh…bloodletting?…Cung Le‘s right foot is still not fully recovered from the injury he received during his victory over Patrick Cote at UFC 148. That’s a problem, considering that his main event bout against Rich Franklin at UFC Macau (aka UFC China aka UFC on FUEL 6) is only nine days away. But as he told Ariel Helwani recently on The MMA Hour, the importance of competing in China is worth the danger of fighting hurt. Or at least that’s what he’d like us to believe:

“I would say [my foot is] 80% now. I’ve kicked a couple of my training partners in the head, [and] it still hurt a little bit, but I’m hoping by the time the fight comes on it’ll be 100 percent…whether I’m 80 or 100, I’m gonna fight…if [this fight] wasn’t in Macau, China, I’d give myself the right amount of time so my foot could really heal…I feel like martial arts basically started from China and my roots are the Chinese martial arts, and of course the UFC needed me to fight…I was not even cleared yet, [and Dana White] was like, ‘Cung’s gonna fight.’ So, a little bit of pressure, but pressure’s good.”

(“You know what else doesn’t work on me? Left hooks to the fa-DAMN IT!” / Photo via Inovafoto)

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is the oldest 36-year-old in the history of humanity. And while he came into his UFC 153 fight against Dave Herman as a more-than 2-1 favorite, he didn’t inspire much confidence at the weigh-ins, where he dragged his way up to the stage, shook Arianny Celeste‘s hand (perhaps mistaking her for Burt Watson?), used his brother to brace himself while taking off his wind pants, removed his shirt to reveal a noticeably soft midsection, then limped his way to the staredown.

As it turns out, there’s a reason why Big Nog may have looked even more decrepit than usual that weekend (via MMAConvert):

Former interim UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fought Dave Herman at UFC 153 with a fractured rib. Nogueira suffered the injury a week into training for the short notice bout with Herman in Brazil. “Fractured my rib three weeks ago on my right side,” said Nogueira, in an interview with SporTV. “I went to the doctor, took a local anesthetic to be able to train.”

(Just some more surrealist video art via gonzagabjj)

Gabriel Gonzaga hasn’t just been affected by the UFC injury curse — he is the UFC injury curse, in all of its weird permutations. The decision-phobic heavyweight originally found his way back into the Octagon as an injury replacement against Edinaldo Oliveira in January. Then, he had to drop off the chaotic UFC 146 card due to an injury. And now, he’s lost his scheduled opponent at next weekend’s UFC 153 card in Rio, after UFC officials confirmed that Geronimo Dos Santos would be unable to compete. Was Geronimo’s withdrawal injury-related? I don’t know. You tell me.

[UPDATE: Actually it was due to a failed medical exam due to hepatitis B.]

UFC officials haven’t yet confirmed whether they’ll be finding a replacement opponent for Gonzaga on the “Silva vs. Bonnar” card. As MMAJunkie suggests, Gonzaga would theoretically be available to serve as the replacement opponent for Daniel Cormier at the Strikeforce event on November 3rd, which would be better than nothing, I guess. We’ll update you when we know more.

(“Welp, that’s the last time I try to use left-handed scissors.”)

From Tito’s neck to Lensar’s gut to Cruz’s knee to Belfort’s hand, injuries to TUF coaches have become the rule lately, not the exception. And Shane Carwin nearly became the latest name on that list after injuring his knee in training. According to MMA Weekly, Carwin suffered no major tears or damage to his knee, but it was enough to prevent him from traveling to England this weekend for a scheduled autograph signing.

As of now, Carwin is still scheduled to face rival Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale on December 15th. But as Dan Henderson and Jose Aldo recently demonstrated, sometimes fighters try to tough out their injuries until the last possible moment, before dropping out when reality sets in. And since Carwin already withdrew from a UFC 125 fight against Roy Nelson, and because he’s spent much of the last two years recovering from neck and back surgeries, the appeal of just getting in there and throwing down against a guy you can’t stand must be overwhelming.

While we certainly hope that’s not the case, and that Carwin is close to 100% by December, this is the 2012 UFC Injury Curse we’re talking about — Carwin’s knee could merely be a red herring for the horrid fate that lies in store for Roy Nelson.

Being the poster-designer for the UFC must be a horrible job. You spend all day selecting the perfect photos of each headliner, tweaking size and shading until they’re juuuuust right, and then you get a frantic phone call from your boss just as you’re leaving for the weekend, saying that so-and-so blew out his such-and-such, and it’s time to start over.

Case in point, check out the poster above. For a brief moment between UFC 151 being canceled and Jones vs. Belfort being booked, some poor bastard actually had to make a Jones vs. Machida 2 poster, and Lyoto Machida hadn’t even accepted the fight. I’m not saying a lot of time was spent on this, I’m saying that no matter how long it took, that time could have been better spent napping.

We’ve compiled a lot more outdated UFC posters in the pages below. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be reminded of great fights that were sunk due to injury, and of the fragility of human ACLs. If we’ve left out any good ones, shoot us some links in the comments section.

(And he *still* looks like the smaller fighter. / Photo via MMAJunkie)

We had a feeling that dropping to featherweight would be Frankie Edgar‘s quickest path to another title shot — we just didn’t think it would happen this fast. As first reported by USA Today, Edgar will step in to face Jose Aldo for the UFC featherweight title at UFC 153 (October 13th, Rio de Janeiro), after original challenger Erik Koch was forced to withdraw due to an undisclosed injury.

If Edgar is victorious, he will become just the third fighter in UFC history (after Randy Couture and BJ Penn) to win a belt in two separate weight classes. We feel awful for Koch — who has already been inactive for nearly a year due to injuries and postponements — but you have to admit that this is one of the rare times in which an injury to a main event fighter results in a more compelling matchup. Said UFC president Dana White of the booking:

(Ben Rothwell: One of the few men on Earth who can mess with the Zohan.)

Aw hell, this never gets easier. We regret to inform you that Ben Rothwell — who most recently made Brendan Schaub see God at UFC 145 — has been forced to withdraw from his main card fight against undefeated heavyweight rising star Travis Browne at UFC on FOX 4: Shogun vs. Vera; an ankle injury was the culprit. Though there were early reports that Strikeforce veteran Devin Cole would come in on short notice to get demolished by Browne, it now appears that Browne is being moved off the August 4th event altogether, and the prelim match between Mike Swick and DaMarques Johnson will be promoted to the main card.

Matt Mitrione was also offered the chance to fight Browne at UFC on FOX 4, but he wisely turned it down. As MMAFighting reports:

In one final outburst of senseless violence, the UFC 149 Injury Curse claimed multiple victims on fight night, before receding back to the haunted ground that spawned it. We already mentioned that Tim Boetsch broke his foot during the second round of his fight against Hector Lombard, and yesterday Urijah Faber confirmed that he broke a rib during his main event meeting with Renan Barao. The California Kid tweeted out the x-ray above, writing “Congrats 2 @RenanBaraoUFC. He’s a tough dude. Broke my rib in the 1st with a great knee. Thank u 4 all the support.”

So if you were wondering why Boetsch wasn’t quite as active as you expected him to be on Saturday, or why Faber consistently looked a half-step behind his Brazilian opponent, blame the broken bones. And if you were wondering why Cheick Kongo‘s bout with Shawn Jordan turned out to be a hopelessly dull clinching-competition, there’s a similar explanation for that too…

UFC.com has confirmed that UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and #1 contender Gray Maynard have both suffered injuries in their training camps, and will not be able to face each other in their scheduled main event trilogy fight at UFC 130 (May 28th, Las Vegas). According to MMAFighting’s sources, Edgar picked up two broken ribs, while Maynard suffered a knee injury — especially unfortunate, considering that the UFC is planning to cover these sorts of injuries starting next month.

Quinton Jackson vs. Matt Hamill is now officially the main event of UFC 130. (Yeah, we know.) UPDATE: Edgar and Maynard will likely be out for 6-8 weeks, and could be re-booked for August or September. But check this out: According to Heavy.com, Edgar pulled out first, and Maynard was going to remain on the card against another top lightweight who he doesn’t seem to have a very high opinion of…