UFC
Dana White says bittersweet UFC 153 shakeups were terrible, but reaffirmed his love in the sport
Sep 24, 2012 - 11:00:25 AM Dana White says bittersweet UFC 153 shakeups were terrible, but reaffirmed his love in the sport

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The seeming injury epidemic in MMA claimed another event over the weekend, with Strikeforce canceling Saturday's event in Sacramento. That came just a month after the cancellation of UFC 151, and just over a week after UFC 153 nearly suffered the same fate.

UFC President Dana White commented on UFC 153's shakeups over the weekend, discussing the hardship - and at the same time, elation - he felt from at one moment losing their top fights, then getting Anderson Silva on the card.

"It was terrible," White said after Saturday's UFC 152 event (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com). "It was the worst day of my life. We've gone through rough periods with injuries. It's crazy. The Achilles' heel we have now are the injuries."

"The fights that we're making kill it, and the events are off the charts. But when [a fight] falls off and you have to scramble to fix it ... the fact we're still having a show, the fact the greatest fighter of all time steps up and takes the main event spot, it's the thing that makes me continue to love this sport."

Penick's Analysis: The UFC has been starting with stronger events this year, on paper at least, and in the process of scrambling due to injuries, a lot of events have been negatively affected. That was a major factor in UFC 151 getting cancelled, because they had lost Josh Koscheck from the co-main event, and likely would have gone with Koscheck against Jake Ellenberger as a main event on short notice when Dan Henderson pulled out. They're doing what they can to scramble in the wake of injuries, and unfortunately there's no easy fix to the problem at this point in time.