According to Paul Craig, his fight with Rodolfo Bellato is expected to be rescheduled for June.
Craig’s (17-9-1 MMA, 9-9-1 UFC) light heavyweight bout vs. Bellato (12-2-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 256 co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas was scrapped on the night of the event due to a medical issue with Bellato.
Craig opened up on Bellato being pulled from their fight just moments before he was scheduled to make the walk to the octagon.
“Hunter Campbell comes in and I’m like, ‘Whoa, that’s very unusual,'” Craig said on the “Believe You Me” podcast. “I don’t know why he’s coming in, he never comes in and wishes me the best of luck. He comes in and says, ‘Look, your opponent has pulled out due to a skin infection.’
“It’s hard. Have you been in that predicament where you’re literally ready to walk out? I’m talking like 30 minutes. It’s almost surreal. You’re frustrated, you want to kick stuff, you want to hit stuff. Everything you’ve worked for up until that point is kind of ripped away from you.”
Craig confirmed that the UFC plans on rebooking their matchup for next month.
“They’re like, ‘Listen, we’re going to look after you, we’re going to reschedule this fight,’ and the fight has been rescheduled,” Craig continued. “It’s going to be within a month of June, but it’s not the same. When you do a 12-week fight camp and then you have to come back home to do another four-week fight camp or five weeks, or six weeks, it’s not cool. But, it’s part of business and I’m in the game of fighting.”
Bellato posted on his Instagram story that it was herpes which forced him to withdraw. Craig says he was told it was indeed a cold sore.
“It was the referee who noticed that he had a cold sore on his face,” Craig said. “From what I’m led to believe, it was a really bad cold sore. Like it was half way up his face and that kind of stuff. Maybe he’s shaved or something and it made it worse, but from what they were talking about backstage, it was really bad on his actual face. The referee went and got the commission, and the commission said we can’t let you fight and that was the whole process.”