It appears that UFC 213 may have lost its expected headlining bout between Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw.
Garbrandt posted to his social media on Friday, just prior to the UFC’s big Summer Kickoff press conference, that he had suffered a severe back injury a couple of months ago. He noted that he had stem cell treatment for the injury, but the procedure did not fully fix the issue.
Now, Garbrandt said that he is leaving with teammate Danny Castillo on Saturday to fly to Germany for another procedure. The injury appears to put him out of his expected UFC bantamweight title defense against Dillashaw, his former teammate and fellow The Ultimate Fighter coach, in their expected UFC 213 headlining bout on July 8 in Las Vegas.
“Once I am (100 percent) healthy and my back can hold up with the intense training I’ll put it through, I’ll line up to defend my title at a later date!!” he wrote on Facebook.
UFC officials could not confirm the injury or any change in the UFC 213 fight line-up at the time of publication. Garbrandt, however, certainly sounded like he would not be able to compete as expected.
“I tore my back almost 2 months ago. I did a stem cell procedure in Las Vegas. I was told from 2 different doctors that it would heal me and I would be able to go back to training after being cleared on March 1st! I went straight to work, pushing the limits with my teammates and coaches. My back lasted 3 days of training and I was back to not being able to walk,” Garbrandt wrote on Friday.
“I told the UFC my back isn’t healed; what else can I do? I’m in constant pain just from walking. Tomorrow, I will be flying to Germany with Danny Castillo to have another procedure done!
“My health comes first over anything! Once I am (100 percent) healthy and my back can hold up with the intense training I’ll put it through, I’ll line up to defend my title at a later date!! Thank you all for the support!!”
Stay tuned to MMAWeekly.com as we have more on the story as it develops.
