WEC's first-ever heavyweight champion James Irvin has suffered a knee injury that will force him out of his middleweight fight against American Top Team's Wilson Gouveia at UFC 102 on Aug. 29 in Portland.Radio host Carmichael Dave of Sports 1140 KHTK in Northern California was first to report of Irvin's injury and FanHouse has confirmed the injury and removal with Irvin's management, MMA Incorporated.
Irvin re-injured the same right knee that he underwent surgery for after tearing his ACL and MCL in his fight against Thiago Silva at UFC 71, Irvin's management told FanHouse Wednesday.
The same injury also forced Irvin (14-5) to pull out in April of a scheduled fight against Drew McFedries at UFC 98. He's been looking to experiment in the middleweight division following his 61-second knockout loss in a light heavyweight bout to Anderson Silva in July 2008.
According to Sherdog.com, The Ultimate Fighter 3 runner-up Ed Herman (15-7) fighting out of Team Quest in Portland will appropriately step in to face Gouveia (12-6).
Irvin, who is tied with Don Frye for the quickest UFC knockout at 8 seconds, has been recommended surgery.
UFC 102 PPV:
- Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
- Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva
- Chris Leben vs. Jake Rosholt
- Nate Marquardt vs. Demian Maia
- Brandon Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
Prelims:
- Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Chris Tuchscherer
- Wilson Gouveia vs. Ed Herman*
- Justin McCully vs. Mike Russow
- Tim Hague vs. Todd Duffee
- Nick Catone vs. Mark Munoz
- Matt Veach vs. Evan Dunham
*not yet officially announced
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