With all the injury news we’ve had as of late is it any surprise that Jose Aldo is the next fighter to be forced to pull out of a scheduled bout. It seems like the UFC can’t catch any breaks and while the promotion was lucky enough to have Frankie Edgar step up to fight Aldo they weren’t lucky enough to get that fight.

UFC 153 is the next card to be hit with the injury bug so until we get some announcements from the UFC on who will fight Edgar let’s play fantasy matchmaker.

Frankie Edgar vs. Urijah Faber

After the announcement that Aldo was forced out of a fight with Edgar Urijah Faber tweeted he was bulking up at a photoshoot. While that tweet may have been in jest the fight does make a lot of sense. Faber has fought at the weight class before, was a former champion at that weight class and to step up for one fight at that weight would be huge.

Both he and Edgar have a solid ground game and their biggest advantage against opponents is speed. Faber may not be at the top of the featherweight division anymore, but for one fight this makes a lot of sense.

Frankie Edgar vs. Chad Mendes

Mendes was the last challenger for Aldo’s belt, but was finished in the first round. Since the loss to Aldo he ran through Cody McKenzie and showed why he is one of the best in the division. Another Alpha Male fighter, Mendes has outstanding wrestling and jiu-jitsu and would surely give Edgar some fits. Pending the legal charges Mendes has against him currently this fight could happen.

Frankie Edgar vs. Donald Cerrone

Yes, I understand Cowboy is a lightweight, but this is a man that truly enjoys fighting. He’s stated before that he would go down to featherweight to fight Cole Miller so who says he wouldn’t fight Edgar. Cerrone has said if the money is right he would do it and the UFC would be more than willing to give him a little pay raise to step in on short notice.

Frankie Edgar has stepped in to face Jose Aldo at UFC 153 after Eric Koch was forced to pull out with a knee injury. Edgar dropped down to featherweight after a controversial split decision loss to lightweight champion Benson Henderson at UFC 150.

Dana White had said that Edgar would have to fight once before earning a title shot, but with the Koch injury he is the most logical step in.

White has been calling for Edgar to drop to featherweight for the a while now, but a second loss to Henderson finally forced Edgar’s hand.

This is the super fight that many fans and analysts have been calling for.

Frankie Edgar’s natural weight is at 145 pounds and Aldo has cleaned through the featherweight division. Edgar looks to have the wrestling that could give Aldo trouble, but also outstanding technical boxing.

The downside to Edgar dropping to featherweight is that he could lose the biggest advantage he held at lightweight, his speed.

Aldo has won 14 straight fights and defended his belt three times in the UFC. He won his most recent fight against Chad Mendes via KO by knee with one second left in the first round.

UFC 153 will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 13. The co-main event is Rampage Jackson and Glover Teixeira.

Another fighter has gone down with an injury. Featherweight champion Jose Aldo is now out of his UFC 149 bout against Eric Koch. That fight is being postponed for now and Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao will headline UFC 149.

This is just another fighter to go down with an injury in the past few weeks. At this point it’s not even shocking when we see a fighter go down, but the cards keep getting weakened.

UFC 147 was a weak card already and the fact that Vitor Belfort is out against Wanderlei Silva makes it weaker. Shogun was supposed to face Thiago Silva at UFC 149, but with Silva going down we now see Brandon Vera stepping in to face the former champion and the fight being moved from UFC 149 to UFC on Fox.

The main event of the Fox card was supposed to be Hector Lombard and Brian Stann, but with Stann being injured Lombard will now replace an also injured Michael Bisping against Tim Boetsch.

It’s almost unbelievable how many fighters are getting hurt, but it’s not anything we can prevent. If we could, the UFC would be doing everything in their power to fix it.

The expanded UFC rosters really help in this times, but it doesn’t only hurt the fight card it also hurts the divisions as a whole. Injuries push back title fights, mix up the division and send it into chaos. This is most visible with the welterweight division currently.

There isn’t much we can do to prevent injuries. The only option is for fighters to train safer, but they still need to be prepared for the fight. It helps that fighters now have injury insurance through the UFC and don’t have to hide injuries anymore, but there seems to be a lot more injuries than in previous years.