With Forrest Griffin out of his UFC 70 bout with Lyoto Machida on April 21 with a staph infection, the UFC apparently contacted Keith Jardine and Jason Lambert to fill his spot, according to WrestlingObserver.com.
However, both are nursing injuries and will not be ready in time.
Here's the full snip:
"The UFC injury woes in the last week continued with Forrest Griffin having to pull out of his UFC 70 match on 4/21 in Manchester, England with Lyoto Machida. Griffin is suffering from a staph infection in his knee. UFC attempted to get both Keith Jardine and Jason Lambert as replacements. Jardine is out with a shoulder injury, and Lambert is still hurting from his 3/3 match with Renato Sobral that he ended up winning. At this point they are still looking for a new opponent for Machida for the show that airs on Spike TV."
Machida is a talent that the UFC undoubtedly wants to showcase against some of the more well known competitors in the 205-pound division. He's got tremendous upside, performing well against some of the top fighters in the world in other promotions prior to his UFC career.
Unfortunately, there aren't too many other viable options available. Naturally, there is the shallow pool of former The Ultimate Fighters (TUF) from which to choose, including guys like Matt Hamill.
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is out there, but it looks like he's still the man for Chuck Liddell at UFC 71 on May 26.
James Irvin could be a nice matchup, but other than that there aren't many other good options that spring to mind. Without question, it'll be interesting to see who the UFC selects in the next coming days and weeks.
Of course, we'll pass along the news when it breaks.
Note: Many readers have emailed me about the possibility of Stephan Bonnar. However, he is still serving a nine-month steroid suspension, which expires in May.
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