Wineland Crushed Over UFC 161 Removal

Up until a few days ago Eddie Wineland was poised to challenge Renan Barao for the UFC’s bantamweight title at UFC 161. However, Barao pulled out of the fight with an injury and his removal forced Wineland off the card as well.

The UFC decided to put a light-heavyweight fight between Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson in the main event and discard the bantamweight title clash entirely as opposed to finding a replacement for Wineland.

UFC Tonight analyst Ariel Helwani took to Tuesday’s broadcast on FUEL TV to relay the following message from the discouraged title hopeful, Wineland.

“He said it’s crushing to him. He said it’s like dangling a piece of cake in front of fat kid for months, and then not letting him eat it. He wants to wait for Barao if it doesn’t take too long for him to recover from the injury. But, I talked to current champ Dominick Cruz and his recovery is going well. He’s hoping to come back before the end of the year. Then he’d get fight Barao, instead of Wineland.”