"You're Out!"- Ben Rothwell and Elvis Sinosic Off UFC 110

The UFC has announced some last-minute changes to tomorrow's UFC 110 card in Sydney, Australia. 

Hometown favorite Elvis Sinosic has suffered an injury to his shoulder that will force him out of his scheduled bout with fellow Australian Chris Haseman, and the fight has been scratched from the event altogether.  In a premiere match-up on the main card, Miletich monster Ben Rothwell contracted an illness and is unable to compete; but the bout will be saved by the big balls of  Australian Anthony Perosh, who first refused the fight against such a dangerous opponent without proper preparation, but later agreed, citing inspiration absorbed from a Dana White speech.

Although 8-11-2 Elvis Sinosic holds a sentimental place in the hearts of MMA fans, the card is not in serious peril without his rematch with Haseman. Sinosic first tangled with Chris Haseman back in the dark ages of 1997 in a Caged Combat show where Haseman attained the victory with the rarely witnessed "Chin to the Eye" submission maneuver, which is now more commonly implemented by aggressive babysitters to control unruly grade-schoolers.

Anthony Perosh had a two-fight stint inside the octagon back in 2006, where he lost both to Jeff Monson and Christian Wellisch.  He has since gone 5-2, mostly in the Cage Fighting Championships promotion.  Via Cage Potato, the following quote is from Perosh on UFC.com explaining the change of heart he experienced before accepting a fight against a man who was not long ago considered the most feared heavyweight striker in the game: 

“I actually said ‘no’ originally. I look up to Cro Cop and he’s a fellow Croatian. My parents are Croatian and I’ve actually been training the other Croatians appearing on this UFC 110 card. I then went and watched yesterday’s (Thursday) press conference and listened to the comment Dana White made about how many fighters actually turn down opportunities. That just made me realise what a big chance this was. How could I turn down the opportunity to fight on the main card at UFC 110 against one of the best guys in the world? Not only that, the fight takes place on the UFC’s first ever show in Australia. I quickly called Joe Silva back and said, ‘yeah – I’ll do it’.”

 I'm a little bummed about losing the Rothwell-CroCop fight, as it's one of the encounters I was most anticipating.  However, to compensate for the overwhelming suspicion that Mirko is going to unmercifully trounce Perosh, Fighters Only has translated a report from the Croation website MMAXION that indicates CroCop was cut in training and needed a few stitches over his eye, but joining in on the fearless bravado, still wants to carry on with the fight.

Much respect to Perosh and CroCop for stepping up and giving the fans what they want to see.  Thanks to Cage Potato for the scoop on Perosh and CroCop.