On Saturday, MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko was scheduled to make his Bellator debut against Matt Mitrione in the main event of Bellator 172.
However, just hours before the fight was supposed to take place, Mitrione was forced to withdraw from the fight due to illness.
Bellator President Scott Coker later revealed Bellator forced Mitrione to not fight due to him suffering from a kidney stone.
“This morning, (Mitrione) was in excruciating pain,” Coker told MMAjunkie. “And so, I told his guys, ‘Hey, get him to the hospital. He needs to get this checked out.’ They took him to the hospital, and by the time they had ran all the tests, he was diagnosed with having a kidney stone.
“So he’s in excruciating pain because the stone was trying to pass, so we said, ‘You know, health and safety first. We know this is a big fight. All the fans are here, I’m sure they’re disappointed, but hopefully we’ll have some great fights for them tonight.”
Despite the main event cancellation, Bellator 172 still took place at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calfornia. In the new main event, Patricky “Pitbull” Freire picked up the biggest win of his career when he knocked out Josh Thomson.
