Joe Lauzon fires back at Doubting Thomases: UFC 180 injury cost me $3,000 on flights alone

Longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight veteran Joe Lauzon got injured earlier this week and was forced to withdraw from his UFC 180 pay-per-view (PPV) fight against Diego Sanchez, planned for Nov. 15, 2014 in Mexico City.

Get all the gory details here.

Not long after news broke that "J-Lau" was off the card, some of the Doubting Thomases in the mixed martial arts (MMA) community were crying foul, perhaps wondering if this generation of fighters was taking advantage of the promotion's generous insurance coverage.

Lauzon puts that theory to rest on his official website:

"It's important to understand the difference between being injured and being hurt. Every fighter on the UFC roster, is constantly HURT. Hurt is what we call those nagging injuries that just never seem to heal and constantly flare up and inevitably get worse as soon as camp starts. Sore knees, ankles, hands, neck, back, etc. What would stop most people in their tracks, we push through because we always have fights coming up to get ready for. Now on the other hand, Injuries are when training is no longer possible... because something is seriously wrong... People love to complain that this is the fighters taking advantage of the UFC's medical insurance, but that is crazy talk. It's not that we are THRILLED to be hurt and off a card. We ultimately miss out on 1/2 to 1/3 of our yearly income... and in some cases, LOSE money by the time we pay coaches, buy flights etc. For this particular fight, I lost about $3,000 on flights alone. Does that seem like a situation where it helped me to not fight and pull out?"

Or as he puts it: "injuries suck."

What also sucks is the frequency in which they've been occurring. In addition to Lauzon, his former dance partner, Diego Sanchez, was recently felled by injury and forced to stay home, while UFC 180 headliner Cain Velasquez -- the main reason UFC went to Mexico in the first place -- was also rendered combat ineffective.

Any armchair trainers out there have a solution?