Jones Injury Windfall Leads To Tony Ferguson vs. Danny Castillo As UFC 177 “Co-Headliner”

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Yesterday (Tues., August 12, 2014), it was announced that reigning UFC light heavyweight champion and pound-for-pound king Jon “Bones” Jones had suffered a leg injury during training and his highly anticipated bout with Daniel Cormier was postponed until January 3, 2015.

The news left UFC 178, perhaps the best card of the year, without a main event. The UFC quickly announced that a flyweight championship bout between Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Chris Cariaso would be moved from the UFC 177 co-main event to the main event of UFC 178.

This left August 30’s UFC 177, which is headlined by a rematch between champion TJ Dillashaw and Renan Barao, without a co-main event and looking very depleted. According to MMAJunkie.com, the UFC announced that lightweights Danny Castillo and Tony Ferguson would compete in the co-main event of UFC 177. Although these are two talented fighters, neither of them is ranked and this match-up does not seem co-main event worthy.

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Going from a second title fight in the co-main event to this fight has caused a bit of uproar among UFC fans, and an understandable one at that. Obviously another title fight could not have been made or even another “big” fight to replace Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso, but there may have been some better options. For example, Scott Jorgensen is competing on the prelims against UFC newcomer and former Olympian wrestler Henry Cejudo. Scott Jorgensen may be on a bit of a downfall, but he has gone up against the best of the best and is a very well known fighter. Putting Jorgensen against an Olympic athlete could make for a great fight.

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Another prelim bout that, in my opinion, should be on the main card is Derek Brunson vs. Lorenz Larkin. These two men also may not be superstars, but they have both faced tough competition and are solid fighters.

These two fights may also not be co-main event caliber, in my opinion they would be better choices than Castillo vs. Ferguson, who, with no disrespect intended, are simply not big names in today’s crowded 155-pound landscape.

Personally, I think this change has made UFC 177 a very lackluster card and one that may not even be pay-per-view (PPV) worthy with the exception of the main event. Will you still be dropping sixty dollars to watch this card?

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The official UFC 177 lineup includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

Champ T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao – for bantamweight title

Danny Castillo vs. Tony Ferguson

Shayna Baszler vs. Bethe Correia

Ruslan Magomedov vs. Richard Odoms

Carlos Diego Ferreira vs. Ramsey Nijem

PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET)

Derek Brunson vs. Lorenz Larkin

Justin Edwards vs. Yancy Medeiros

Henry Cejudo vs. Scott Jorgensen

Anthony Hamilton vs. Ruan Potts

PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 7:30 p.m. ET)

Anthony Birchak vs. Joe Soto