Velasquez out, Kongo in against Mustafa Al-Turk at UFC 92
September 23, 2008 by Adam Morgan
Cain Velasquez has reportedly pulled out of a proposed bout with former Cage Rage British heavyweight champion Mustafa Al-Turk at UFC 92 due to a knee injury that was sustained in training. Velasquez is reported be undergoing knee surgery to fix the issue and will be unavailable to take the fight against Al-Turk.
“We got word from Joe Silva that Velazquez has pulled out due to injury and will be undergoing knee surgery to fix it. It’s a shame as we had a strategy in place and we were all set to go,” Al-Turk’s manager and coach, Alexis Demetriades is quoted as telling MMA Weekly.
Stepping in to replace Velasqeuz will be UFC heavyweight Cheick Kongo. Kongo, who recently made a switch from being trained by Juanito Ibarra, has recently aligned himself with the Wolfslair training camp in England. He joins other notable UFC fighters Quinton Jackson and Michael Bisping.
“We were offered Kongo by Joe and we accepted the fight. We were just waiting for Kongo to get his signed bout agreement back before we could confirm it,” Demetriades also told MMA Weekly.
Kongo is coming off a knockout victory over Dan Evensen at UFC 87 in Minneapolis. Before his loss to Heath Herring at UFC 82 in March it looked as if Kongo was on the fast track to a title shot but it now appears that he’ll have to work his way back up the ladder to put himself in that kind of position again.
The report also goes on to say that the fight will be on the main card portion of the December 27 card and that the bout will be shown on pay-per-view. UFC 92 is set to include a heavyweight interim title fight between Antonio Rodrigio Nogueira and Frank Mir as well as a possible light heavyweight title bout between Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans.
Much better match up for Mustafa Al-Turk he should be able to use his wrestling to get Kongo to the ground.Wrestling is his strong suit and Velasquez would have been able to out wrestle him and keep the fight on the feet which is not what Al-Turk wants.
Glad to see some new blood in the big men
Mustafa Al-Turk has the chance to make a big impression in the UFC by beating Cheik Kongo. I don’t think he will but he could possibly decision Kongo if he gameplans smart, works the takedowns and holds position. It will be interesting to see how much Kongo has improved these aspects of his game since his lost to Marrero. My guess is a quite a bit. Enough to TKO Al-Turk, I’d wager. But still Mustafa has a reasonable chance though; much more of a chance than he had this time last week when he was fighting Velasquez.
Ooooh, this will be exciting!
bad match-up for Kongo!