MANCHESTER – UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is seriously ill in hospital after collapsing in Canada, UFC president Dana White said Saturday.
“He’s in rough shape, he’s in really bad shape,” White said Saturday after UFC 105.
“He is not well and he is not getting any better. . . . He’s very, very sick and he’s going to be out for a while. He’s got a lot of problems.”
Citing mononucleosis, the 32-year-old Lesnar was forced to postpone a title fight against Shane Carwin scheduled for UFC 106 on Nov. 21 in Las Vegas. The fight was pushed back to UFC 108 on Jan. 2, but that too has been postponed.
“He’s got mono and he’s got something else wrong with him. I know what’s wrong with him, he just doesn’t want me talking about it,” White said.
“He doesn’t have cancer or AIDS or anything like this, (but) he’s got some problems, man.”
White said Lesnar was currently in a hospital in North Dakota. The six-foot-three, 265-pounder owns property in Canada, White added.
“He dropped up there and had to go to hospital,” White said.
He said Lesnar may have to go to the Mayo Clinic or another top hospital “to figure out what’s wrong with this guy.”
“He’s not going to be getting well any time soon,” White said.
The UFC has other concerns with fighters. White said the newly announced UFC 108 main event between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cain Velasquez is off because Nogueira has a serious staph infection.
“(It’s) bad, to the point now that it’s in his bloodstream,” White said. “He’s probably going to have to be hospitalized and intravenously given antibiotics.”
Carwin is also out after undergoing knee surgery.
“It’s crazy,” White said of the injuries and illness.