The UFC's Biggest Problem

   Anyone would think that the toughest job in the UFC would be being a fighter; I mean the fighters are the one who get punished inside the octagon right?
   If there is a role that is harder in the UFC than being a modern gladiator, it is being the matchmaker of the fights.
   The matchmaker not only has to plan who fights who based on records, but also by looking at the combatant's popularity, financial demands, and a lot more. It is not an easy job to say the least.
  Once a fight is officially set, you would think Joe Silva's work is done.
   Think again, because lately, Silva's best friend has been tainting his match-ups; injuries.
   Silva had to deal with Phil Davis pulling out of the UFC 133 main event against Rashad Evans last week, and now has just dealt with the co-main event of the card being completely destroyed due to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira being forced out of a fight with Rich Franklin, in which no replacement could be found.
   UFC 133 is not the only example of a UFC Event in which a fighter has pulled out of a fight due to injury; at least one fighter per fight card suffers some type of injury during his camp that forces him to withdraw from the fight.
    The question is can injuries in camp be prevented, especially so close to fight time?
   If it were not for injuries, we would have seen so many good fights already this years including Brock Lesnar vs Junior Dos Santos and BJ Penn vs Jon Fitch 2, however when it comes to training, MMA is unlike any other sport.
   An MMA fighter has to go full speed in any workout, because there is so many different aspects to the sport; you have to be well rounded in boxing, kick boxing, wrestling, ju-jitsu, and much more to succeed, which requires dedication and complete determination. If a fighter does not train at full go in every workout of his camp, he could have the short end of the stick going into the fight.
   Now the problem with taking every workout as serious as you can is that you are more prone to injury.
   Sadly, this cannot be taken care of because all fighters (like all athletes) are different in their bodies and what parts of their body are least bound to get injured, but, because MMA fighters have more frequent and harder workouts on their bodies, injuries occur more in many places.
   The only way I could see this problem being taken care of is if there was more time between each fight a fighter would have, but the fact that most fighters like to have around four fights a year to help their families financially makes this idea somewhat impossible. For this idea to actually work a fighter would fight two fights a year; three if lucky.
   Injuries in cage-fighting are not going to stop anytime soon, especially in ruthless camps where fighters become the best they can be. I feel terrible for Silva because this fact is exposed on his job the most, but he just has to realize (like all of us) that these gladiators are training their hardest to makes us viewers happy.