Brooks vs. Lentz scrapped, fighter issues statement
“Due to medical issues with Nik Lentz, his bout against Will Brooks at UFC 216 has been cancelled.”
Lightweight Nik Lentz has been removed from his scheduled fight vs. former teammate Will Brooks and the bout has been canceled. Brooks had already weighed in successfully when the announcement was made.
“Due to medical issues with Nik Lentz, his bout against Will Brooks at UFC 216 has been cancelled,” announced the UFC. “The bout between Matt Schnell and Marco Beltran has been moved to the FX prelims, and UFC 216 will proceed as scheduled with 12 bouts.”
Lentz released a statement via his social network.
I didn’t make it to weigh-ins this morning because I was in the hospital, he began. My body is not responding to insulin correctly and during my weight cut (Thursday) night, my feet grand hands went numb, I stopped sweating, my heart rate went through the roof, and I didn’t know what was going on. I decided to go to the hospital and stayed there through the night into the morning. I’m not sure just yet as to the diagnosis of what’s happening, but I’m having diabetic like issues. I figured I could push through them and still fight. I was wrong.
“I’m sorry to everyone involved. I bit off more than I could chew and even though my health problem is not my fault, I should have handled it differently. God Bless everyone for their support throughout my camp. I will be back soon.”
While Brooks and Lentz weren’t regular training partners at American Top Team HQ, it made for an interesting storyline when Lentz left ATT earlier this year to train with Henri Hooft at his Combat Club. Both fighters were coming off losses, and would likely have sought to dominate via strikes. Weight cutting has robbed the opponent, the fans, and the league of yet another excellent fight. And yet another fighter has been robbed of his health. And the UFC is one step closer to a fighter dying from weight cutting.