Fukuda Hurt in Car Crash, Out of UFC 133 Bout with ‘Sapo’

Riki Fukuda’s second trip to the Octagon has been delayed. | File photo: Taro Irei/Sherdog.com

Fukuda announced the news Monday through his personal Twitter account.

“I was in a car accident on [June 16],” Fukuda wrote. “The doctor said I fractured my left knee and shin bone. It looks like surgery is needed, so I can’t participate in August. Sorry to my fans, everyone who supported me, my opponent and the UFC officials. I’ll still go hard!”

The former Deep middleweight champion did not give a possible date for his return to action.

Hours after Fukuda’s announcement, Natal took to Twitter and revealed that he will now meet Constantinos Philippou on the Aug. 6 card, which emanates from Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. A native of Cyprus who now trains with Matt Serra in New York, Philippou made his UFC debut on a week’s notice in March, falling by unanimous decision to Nick Catone. The defeat snapped an eight-fight unbeaten streak for Philippou, who came up through New Jersey feeder promotion Ring of Combat.

Fukuda, 30, made his Octagon debut at February’s UFC 127, where he dropped a controversial unanimous decision to Canadian Nick Ring. Prior to the defeat, the Grabaka representative had won seven in a row and nine of his last 10, including a victory over Murilo “Ninja” Rua and a trio of brutal battles with Ryuta Sakurai. In 22 professional outings, Fukuda has been stopped only once.

This item was updated at 1:32 p.m. ET with information regarding Rafael Natal’s new opponent. Go Yamamoto contributed to this report.