Freak acupuncture injury reason Saskatoon native excluded from UFC's Sunday fight card

From the "WTF" file comes this truly weird story out of The StarPhoenix (H/T Vice Fightland) on the reason that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight fighter -- and Saskatoon, Canada native -- Mitch Clarke won't compete tomorrow night Sunday (Aug. 23, 2015) infront of his hometown fans.

Apparently, sticking your body full of tiny needles is extremely dangerous.

Who knew?

The reason he's not competing on Sunday's Fight Night card, headlined by a featherweight bout between top-10 contenders Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway, is almost too bizarre to believe. While receiving an acupuncture treatment, the needle broke off from the handle while in his arm. Making things exponentially worse, the muscle in his forearm was contracting at that exact moment. With no handle to hold on to, the needle was sucked deep into his forearm muscle. Clarke had to undergo surgery to have the needle removed.

Damn. Talk about the proverbial needle in a haystack.

The timing couldn't have been worse for Clarke. The freak acupuncture injury happened in June, just hours before UFC made the big announcement that UFC Fight Night 74 would make its provincial debut in the prairie province of Saskatchewan.

"It's devastating. It would have been a dream come true to be able to fight in the first Saskatchewan card," Clarke told the StarPhoenix. "It's super disappointing. It wasn't to be, apparently."

Clarke made his mixed martial arts (MMA) debut in Saskatoon at "Extreme Cage Warz" on May 12, 2007, defeating Jase Nibourg via submission. He won his next seven fights, all in Canada, earning himself a shot at UFC 140 in Toronto, a bout that he lost to John Cholish.

Following another loss at UFC 149, Clarke won his next two UFC fights in impressive fashion, including a second round submission of Al Iaquinta. His most recent fight was a loss to Michael Chiesa at UFC Fight Night 63 in Fairfax, Virginia.

Although there won't be any Saskatchewan fighters on Sunday's card there are plenty of Canadians to root for, including Patrick Cote, Chad Laprise, Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Valerie Letourneau.

MMAmania.com will provide LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Fight Night 74 card right here.