Mitrione ill, Fedor fight rescheduled until May or June
Matt Mitrione was ill, and pulled from the fight Saturday night with Fedor Emelianenko
Ariel Helwani broke the news that Matt Mitrione was ill, and out of his fight with Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of Bellator 172.
https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/833091284596355072
That news was confirmed a short time later by Bellator president Scott Coker.
https://twitter.com/ScottCoker/status/833092116800688128
An official press release followed shortly afterward.
Due to illness, Matt Mitrione (11-5) is unable to compete at Bellator 172 and as a result, his highly-anticipated matchup with Fedor Emelianenko (36-4, 1 NC) has been scratched from tonight’s event. Bellator officials will look to reschedule the fight at a later date.
Fans were offered a full refund up to the start of the event.
Chael Sonnen and Tito Ortiz offered to step up on the shortest notice, but despite reported interest from the company, it did not come to pass.
Look, it’s disappointing, Coker to John Morgan and Ken Hathaway for MMAjunkie. We came here to see Fedor fight in the main event.
This morning, [Mitrione] was in excruciating pain. And so, I told his guys, ‘Hey, get him to the hospital. He needs to get this checked out.’ They took him to the hospital, and by the time they had ran all the tests, he was diagnosed with having a kidney stone.
So he’s in excruciating pain because the stone was trying to pass, so we said, ‘You know, health and safety first. We know this is a big fight. All the fans are here, I’m sure they’re disappointed, but hopefully we’ll have some great fights for them tonight.
I got calls from Chael. ‘Put me in coach.’ Tito Ortiz texted me. ‘Hey, put me in.’ I’m like, ‘We can’t just do that. It’s not that simple of a process.’ And then we just ran out of time.
Doors were opening at 3 o’clock. We had to decide, ‘Are we going to pull it? Or are we just going to continue to try and wait another half-hour, which means all the fans are standing outside?’ We just ran out of time, and we said, ‘Look, we’d rather just pull it. The fight’s off.’
We’re going to reschedule it. We’re going to try and work something out with the building here to reschedule it and have it here in San Jose sometime in the next couple of months. That’s not guaranteed, … (but) when we reschedule it, whether he fights Matt or not depending on Matt’s health, it will be special because anytime Fedor fights, it’s a big, big, big thing.