Former bantamweight champion, Renan Barao was cut off from the UFC 177 after an unfortunate incident happened while cutting weight for his weight in scheduled last Friday. This happened at his hotel room in Sacramento, California.
Barao was supposed to face champion T.J. Dillashaw with a title belt on table on Saturday at Sleep Train Arena in the main event of UFC 177.
As of now, it remains unclear on what is the reason behind this incident and all that is known is that its due to medical reasons. A UFC source says "I know he's going to be fine, but he's definitely not fighting Saturday."
According to Nova Uniao, Barao's fight team, Barao felt dizzy when leaving the tub in his hotel room and hit his head against the wall. The bantamweight passed out and was rushed to the hospital.
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta saud that safety is their primary concern and that they had brought Braao to the hospital for precautionary measures.
He said "We just wanted to make sure he was all right. My understanding is that he is [OK] and that everyone was being extra cautious, so he was taken to the hospital to be checked."
Because of this incident, Dillashaw threw out some harsh words for the former champion saying "He's scared, you know. He don't want it. His coaches wanted the rematch more than he did. He's made this weight before and it's funny he didn't want to do it now."
Now that the slot needs to be filled, Joe Soto has risen up to the occasion to fight DIllashaw instead. Soto is a former Bellator champion and had accepted the bout without any further hesitation saying "This is something you have to step up for, something you can't pass up. When you have opportunities like this, you jump at them. When the matchmakers asked me if I wanted this fight, I said yes immediately."
Joe Soto (15-2), who was set to take on Anthony Birchak on the preliminary portion of the card, will now take on Dillashaw for the bantamweight title. Soto will be put in a very tight spot for this match as he has very little time to prepare and face Dillashaw.
