Steve Cantwell Out of UFC 108 Matchup With Vladimir Matyushenko
Steve Cantwell has become the latest fighter to withdraw from Saturday’s injury-plagued UFC 108 event, pulling out of his scheduled preliminary card matchup with fellow light heavyweight Vladimir Matyushenko on Tuesday for undisclosed reasons.
According to MMA Weekly, the UFC is seeking a replacement to face Matyushenko at the pay-per-view event in Las Vegas.
Cantwell (7-3) became the final WEC light heavyweight title-holder with his knockout of Brian Stann in August 2008, then won “Submission of the Night” honors in his UFC debut win over Razak Al-Hassan last December. “The Robot” has most-recently dropped back-to-back fights to Luiz Cane in April and Stann in September.
Matyushenko (23-4), the former IFL 205-pound champ, was knocked out by Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at a January Affliction event but has bounced back with wins over Jason Lambert in May and Igor Pokrajac in his return to the UFC in September.
UFC 108 is headlined by Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva and the main card also includes Paul Daley vs. Dustin Hazelett, Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout, Duane Ludwig vs. Jim Miller, and Junior Dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel, while the Spike TV-televised preliminary card features Martin Kampmann vs. Jacob Volkmann and Dan Lauzon vs. Cole Miller.
For complete UFC 108 coverage and the latest UFC news and UFC rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Steve Cantwell
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And they just keep coming.
This poor card has took a beating. To think at one point it looked like this.
Nog/Velasquez
Rashad/Silva
Dos Santos/Gonzaga
Daley/Condit
Miller/Griffin
That’s too bad, this IS a cursed card…or was that 106?
Cursed and weak!
I’m sorry but this card just isn’t worth the 60$ asking price they charge for PPV’s. This is barely spike card worthy.
You must be in Canada? Because that card is $45 for me. And if Steve Cantwell is the difference between worth it and not worth it, you’re a strange little man.
So here’s what I’m saying…don’t buy it. In fact if it’s so weak, don’t go anywhere else to even watch it. Finally, you have a chance to man up and do what you seem to want to, which is make a statement against weak UFC cards. Or just shut up. But don’t watch it anyway and be a hypocrite.
I dare you.
I am a huge MMA fan….I watch everything…UFC, WEC, Strikeforce, etc……but I agree, I will not pay for this one. I don’t see one match up that peaks my interest. I wish Dana would come to his senses and just put this on TV for free. I mean, I really don’t care to see Evans and Silva. I am sure there will be great fights, but there is nothing on the line for these fights. COME ON UFC…….GIVE IT TO US FOR FREE or we all will be watching college football and really not care what happens in this fight.
How can he put it on for free? He doesn’t own a network and Spike has already booked the night.
Do you people ever think before you vomit stupidity on my screen?
R-E-L-A-X
I think all dbiz is asking for posters to do is T-H-I-N-K…
Exactly jcohl. People are complaining that a cancelled PRELIM CARD FIGHT (and not one of the aired on spike fights) makes this not worth buying…
Bunch of morons.
D-Biz…..
Apparently you know nothing about business. What is Spike already booked with Sports Jobs with Junior Seau? If the UFC wanted to give this free, they could. Please tell me what Spike has booked it with.
Looking at Spike and Versus, the UFC and WEC carry those networks, so please tell me, if your number 1 money maker ask for something, will they get it? Or will reruns of Manswers take priority? Why don’t you crawl back to your cave and polish your GED.
First of all, lets stop with the personal attacks.
Second, it’s not just about Spike and what they already do or don’t have booked for the time slot. The UFC will probably still make more money on 300 PPV buys than if this were broadcast on Spike, and you have to deal with all the bars, that have contracts to show PPVs that are looking forward to that revenue from both covers (for the ones that charge a cover) and food and beverage sales.
In “no personal attack” fashion….
The UFC does not “carry” Spike. I don’t think 2 hours of programming a week is what makes that network. It’s all the movies, the shows that are targetted at men, and even some of their originals (the kill point was damn good for the few weeks it ran).
As far as Versus, the WEC is on maybe once a month tops. They aren’t carrying anything either. It doesn’t matter what Spike has it booked with. Spike doesn’t make money from the UFC. Is that clear? Spike, and all TV networks, make money from commercials and not from shows (in fact, they must pay to air shows). They make money by virtually guaranteeing a company what time their commercials will be aired. You can’t do that during fights. They may end early, they may end late, and you’ll miss your ad times if you try and run ads which are already contracted during fights.
If you watch the Spike-aired UFC events, the clock is sponsored by ________ and the replays are sponsored by _______ and that covers the cost of broadcast (along with the ads pasted on every flat surface of the facility).
Saying that the UFC could just ask and a network would break their advertising contracts on less than a week’s notice is asinine and shows absolutely zero understanding of business.
Is that dusting the GED off enough, or would you like more?
^HAZELETT!!!
Jon “Bones” Jones!
Rashad Evans (No. 4 LHW) vs. Thiago Silva (No. 8 LHW)
Paul Daley (No. 8 WW) vs. Dustin Hazelett
Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout
Jim Miller vs. Duane Ludwig
Junior dos Santos (No. 8 HW) vs. Gilbert Yvel
Wow people get spoiled by so many great cards, this is not one of the best but to say you are a Huge MMA fan leaves me wondering how none of these fights can peak your interest.
Is there a special criteria for acceptable fights, i’m not trying to trash anyone but i see some real potential excitement here.
The one thing that gets me is the Pre-lims are free again on Spike but every time they do that they end up airing one or two of the supposed free fights on the PPV portion to fill time.
Is there too many events maybe, lack of available content?
Thiago/Evans will be a good one, Stout/Lauzon will be a stand up war, Hazelett(JJ King)…Dos Santos…Yvel…big bangers…enjoy!
I’m excited about this card, and don’t see why others are not, unless all they care about is stars, and not exciting fights. There are several exciting fights on this card, as well as fights that matter. Evans vs. Silva puts one man another step closer to losing to Lyoto Machida again (if Machida defends in May). Stout vs. Lauzon will be a war and I personally like Lauzon. Yvel vs. dos Santos will be pure fireworks, dos Santos is quickly rising in the heavyweight rankings and is putting that at a great risk facing the hard hitting Yvel. To see “Bang” back in the UFC is great. Dan Lauzon vs. Cole Miller will be good too, and hey, first time ever that two brothers have fought on the same UFC card is good stuff too.
Im with Justin on this one.
There might be some “star power” missing but if you want star power, go play Guitar Hero. These fights should be exciting. I have standard expectations for these fights.
Considering this fight card still has several chances to have KO of the year candidates and submission of the year candidates I don’t see the big deal…
yea with ya on this did think i have ever looked at a card that rubbish. yea some cards i think wow. but at the end of the day if both guy are willing to put it on the line and display there skill sets, what more can ya ask for.
did + ,do not
(dyslexia god i hate it)
I’m thinking that a lot of the folks who are bad-mouthing this card are going to be doing a lot of backpedaling come Sunday morning…
;)
Of course you need to say that, it is your job. Bad fights mean no traffic! Keep it up Barnum and Bailey!
Yeah, cause Jcohl gets paid by this site… oh… wait… no… he doesn’t…. good job.
Its no ones job here to hype fights, the promotion does that themselves. Were here because we love mma and enjoy watching it. This is a great card, i mean no super stars but we dont need to see them on every card and it is impossible to ask the UFC to provide that, its not like they are Strikeforce thats puts major shows on once every other month, there putting on two major shows a month.
My “job”?!
Um, ok.
Lets get something clear right away. A job is something at which you make money. MMA, and to be more specific the UFC, costs me thousands a year in PPVs, live events attended, walkoutwear, and the get-togethers I host at my place with increasing regularity.
Seeing as how I make my living as a chef, and spend an unwise portion of my earnings on MMA/UFC, it should and could be considered my “anti-job”, as opposed to my job.
;)
And on one hand I suppose its flattering in a way that you’d [ planck16] think I had the writing talent to be gainfully employed by IMO the Internet’s premiere MMA website, but on the other hand its painfully obvious that you haven’t read about 90% of my posts, which are usually criticial of Dana White, certain fighters that I deem unsportsmanlike, meddling management, poor matchmaking, etc. If I were employed by either the frenZy or the UFC, the majority of my posts would probably reflect that, and not the opposite.
Also, my friend, if MMA has a “Barnum and Bailey”-type of promoter, or personality, it would be Dana White, and not me.
Nice try though, but lets try sticking to whats real, both at the site and our sport, ok??
:)
Wow. None of the admins or long time users on this site hype fights. I have read this site for a long time now and have never once seen what I believed to be hype. Opinion, sure, but we the readers enjoy consistant and educated opinion from a mod, admin, or anyone else.
I hope the Sunday of backpedaling comes true. If it turns out to be crappy fights its not because anyone in this thread “called it”. I havent seen any comentary about WHY these fights will be bad. If they turn out to be crap I will be as surprised as Joe Silva.
Per Cantwell’s Management via BE
Curiouser and curiouser…
Someone had an issue getting licensed…
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, dbiz.
I didn’t want to be the first person to post that, because of the negative connotation, but licensure issues seem to be the most likely culprit…
I can’t remember if it is Cali or Nev I looked up, but one of them has an over 20 page packet that must be filled out before a fighter can be licensed. It could be as simple as one missed signature in the packet, and a doctor must be brought in to verify some information.
Not getting licensed isn’t necessarily anything a fighter did, beyond going to a doctor who missed a signature line or who checked the wrong box.
I always look forward to the cars that people **** about, they usually turn out pretty good. One that I can recall was “UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson” People said that card was gonna suck and most of the fights were won via KO! So don’t be surprised if this card ends up being good.
What’s up with the trolls today?
It seems to happen every month, O this card is awful blah blah, Strikeforce doesn’t have exciting fights blah blah blah.
Then come Sunday “wow did you see those fights”, ya buddy OK
Your right, Strikeforce’s cards are getting better and better. This will be a good year for MMA.
Btw, THIAGO SILVA with the win!