Benoit Saint-Denis has been left without an opponent for UFC Paris after Christos Giagos was forced to withdraw having undergone minor surgery on his hand.
“I was getting some cleaning done and while wiping down a piece of my grill in the trash my hand hit a broken porcelain toilet and gashed my hand open, cutting a tendon in my pinky,” Giagos wrote on an Instagram post. “Unfortunately, due to the severity of the injury, I had to pull out of my upcoming fight in Paris. I was praying the damage wasn’t bad so I could still take the fight, but that wasn’t the case.
“I went to a hand specialist today to check the damage and had to undergo a minor surgery to reattach my pinky tendon,” the lightweight continued.
It’s currently unclear how long Giagos will be out for recovery, or if his opponent for UFC Paris, Saint-Denis will receive a short-notice replacement, or be scrapped from the card entirely.
The AllStar MMA roundup
- Looking for a fight: Dan Hooker says Tony Ferguson should “piss off and retire” if UFC 281 challenge is not accepted
- UFC San Diego: Ode Osbourne says ‘I’ll do what I want to do’ regardless of Tyson Nam’s gameplan
- UFC 278: Yanan Wu feeling “peaceful” ahead of Lucie Pudilova fight, plans diverse striking attack
The best of the rest
- Police officer accused in shooting death of BJJ legend Leandro Lo turns himself in – MMAFighting.com
- Dana White’s Contender Series 49 weigh-in results: Bo Nickal’s opponent heavy – MMAJunkie.com
- Charles Oliveira: My dad broke down in tears after finding out I’d been stripped of UFC LW title – BloodyElbow.com
- Marlon Vera reveals he was originally offered Petr Yan for Aug. 13 in Boston, but the “fat c–t” declined – MMAMania.com
- Dominick Cruz explains why he reps himself in most UFC fight negotiations: ‘What is the manager actually doing?’ – MMAFighting.com
The Call
The head-to-head market has continued to trend in favor of Marlon Vera overnight – up from -208 yesterday. Cruz is slowly heading toward +200 territory. He’s coming in as the biggest underdog in a fight since before his UFC debut, according to odds information from Tapology.
The last time Cruz was wider than +200 was when he faced Brian Bowles under the WEC banner in 2010, when he entered the cage at +232. Since then, he’s not been past +175 in the following 12 years, until this point.
All lines presented by crypto sports book Cloudbet:
Dominick Cruz (24-3) vs Marlon Vera (21-7-1)
The soapbox
Dustin hints at UFC 281 in New York:
Tony Ferguson gets some work in with the legendary Freddie Roach:
‘Sweet Dreams’ takes on fans saying he can’t hang in the top 5:
Couple lads from Down Under want a piece of the New York pay-per-view:
Anthony Pettis reveals broken hands after PFL playoff loss:
The morning view
Elisandra Ferreira catches up with The AllStar ahead of her PAWFC title fight:
Dominick Cruz previews his UFC San Diego main event with Chito Vera:
Relive the action of Vera vs Font ahead of this weekend’s main event:
Done deals
This week
- Abubakar Nurmagomedov to fight Gadzhi Omargadzhiev at UFC 280 on October 22nd (per Red Fury MMA)
- Cody Garbrandt to fight Rani Yahya at UFC event on October 1st (per Alex Behunin)
On this day in MMA…
On the 9th of August, 2008, a 21-year-old Jon Jones made his UFC debut at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy.
Jones, 6-0 at the time, would take Andre Gusmao, undefeated himself at 5-0, to a unanimous decision victory on the judge’s scorecards after having just two weeks to prepare for the fight.
