Bellator Denies Reports that Claim Champion Attila Vegh Was Asked to Step Aside, Not Injured

Bellator officials on Sunday denied claims that Bellator light heavyweight champion Attila Vegh is not injured, and was instead sidelined so that the promotion could put together a more attractive rematch between Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and Emanuel Newton.

Lawal and Newton are slated to rematch at the Bellator 106: Rampage vs. Tito pay-per-view on Nov. 2 in Long Beach, Calif. They will clash for the interim light heavyweight championship, since Vegh is sidelined with an injury.

Reports surfaced on Saturday following an interview that the Slovakian fighter did with Polish website mmarocks.pl, claiming that Vegh indicated he was not injured and asked to step aside to make way for the rematch.

Bellator officials say that is untrue and stated that Vegh confirmed that his comments were not translated correctly. They also released a medical report substantiating Vegh’s injury.

Vegh will put his belt on the line against the winner of the Lawal vs. Newton rematch in early 2014.

Bellator’s statement, released to MMAWeekly.com on Sunday:

Numerous websites yesterday posted a story regarding Attila Vegh and statements he allegedly made to a reporter while in Poland.  The interview was done in Slovakian, through a reporter speaking Polish, and a number of US websites published the story with inaccurate and misleading information.

Please see the attached medical report to this email, a doctor’s report provided to Bellator by Attila’s doctor detailing his injury and instructing him to do nothing for 2 months.

Additionally, Attila has confirmed that his statements were not translated correctly and were not accurate.  Attila was fully aware that Bellator made numerous attempts to schedule his world title defense vs. Emmanuel Newton, and that his injury prevented that bout from occurring and that Bellator was going to schedule an interim world title fight because of the delays.

Attila will be facing the winner of the Newton vs. Mo Interim World Title fight in early 2014.