Cain Velasquez to undergo back surgery

Recently Cain Velasquez withdrew from his UFC 196 bout with Fabricio Werdum with a back injury. Velasquez’ withdrawal ultimately led to the UFC booking Stipe Miocic as a fill-in opponent for Werdum, who then withdrew from the bout with a back injury.

After a brief scramble that saw Nate Diaz offer to fight Anthony Pettis in the main event, the UFC promoted the co-main event bout between Johny Hendricks and Stephen Thompson to the main event, and moved the card to Fox Sports 1.

In addition, the UFC rebranded ‘UFC 197: dos Anjos vs. McGregor’ as UFC 196, and will reportedly add another PPV card in between now and UFC 200 in July.

UFC President Dana White spoke on ‘Opie with Jim Norton’ to update fans on Velasquez’s situation:

“Cain has got problems with a disc in his back, and he’s actually going to have surgery. The good part is it’s not going to be long. He’s going to have the surgery and will probably need four weeks to recover. So that’s good news.”

Depending on how long Fabricio Werdum is out for, the UFC could be looking to re-book this fight sooner rather than later once Velasquez is good to go in 4 weeks.