Just when you thought that the UFC’s middleweight division was back to normal, a huge shake-up comes rocketing in and messed it all up once again. Robert Whittaker is out with an injury, which resulted in Yoel Romero being removed from his fight with David Branch, another interim title created, then a match with Luke Rockhold booked to replace the main event of UFC 221. A lot of us woke up to find out the news but we weren’t the only one. David Branch himself rubbed the crust out of his eyes and immediately released a statement to his fans.
“I just got up to take a f-cking piss, man, and I found out about all this sh-t right now. I’ve been training my f-cking ass off, man. I’m away from my family right now, sleeping in the f-cking gym, sleeping in my gym. F-ck man, damn. Things happen, y’know? We get injured sometimes, y’know? These guys are all real fighters, man.”
Middleweights BATTLE in Orlando! 💥
Watch as @YoelRomeroMMA and @DavidCBranchMMA each look to earn a statement victory in Florida. #UFCOrlando pic.twitter.com/FVaK89dI88
— UFC (@ufc) December 30, 2017
“This is the nature of the business. I was just really stoked to fight Yoel [Romero]. Really excited to right some wrongs in my last fight you know but these things happen. I’m going to be back in the octagon soon guys. I don’t know against who. I guess I’m just going to go home and sleep now. I don’t know what’s going on. This sh-t’s crazy.” — David Branch via his official Instagram.
Both David Branch and Robert Whittaker have shown nothing but respect in the hectic changes to their fights, no doubt it’s a huge blow to the fighters. Branch may be able to get the fight with Romero re-booked depending on the outcome of UFC 221, but the winner is slated to unify the middleweight titles once again against Robert Whittaker when he comes back from his injury. We hope to see Whittaker and Branch back in the Octagon soon.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/13/2018.