Lawler Forced to Pull Out of Fight with Hose on Dec 15th

“Ruthless” Robbie Lawler has been forced to pull out of his scheduled bout with Ross Hose on Dec 15th due to injury his bicep which he has torn in the build up to his defense. A comment from the Icon champion was released on Monday stating that he was disappointed.

"There is no good news," said ICON Sport President T.Jay Thompson at a news conference Monday at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center. For "days, Patrick (Freitas) and I, while sick to our stomachs, have tried awful hard to make the best decision both for our fans, for our local fighters and for the fighters that have trained hard and planned on coming in here.

The worst news for The Icon board was that they feel there is no suitable replacement that can fill in the shoes of their champion and they made the decision to cancel the bout as they feel Ross Hose only deserves to be put up against Lawler.

"What can you say," said a disappointed Lawler. "I was training hard."

This is the 3rd occasion that a Kala & Lawler fight has been postponed.

"I'm kind of sad, hurt … all that training, but stuff happens," Hose said. "I have no control of that, so I just got to keep focused and keep going forward. I can't think about the past or what just happened. It's only going to drive me back."

The fight has been put off from June to September and due to commitments because the Icon champion has had a bout with Murilo "Ninja" Rua at Elite Xc in Hawaii along with a shoulder injury.

"We did the best with what we had, and it didn't make sense to insult our fans and put on a card that was less than ICON," Thompson said.

No date has been mentioned as Lawler will need time for his arm to recuperate along with getting conditioned for the encounter which could see the fight back on in the middle part of 2008.

"The injury is a serious injury to Robbie, certainly not a career-ending injury, but the initial thought that we heard as early as Friday was four to six weeks, and now today's confirmation from the doctor that was just re-looked at and said it might be more serious than that," Thompson said. "So we don't have details as far as if and when Robbie will get surgery or even if it's 100-percent sure he needs surgery, but it's looking worse today than it did even Friday."

It’s upsetting to know that the 15 bout card is to be rescheduled, but it’s good news as the fighters have got other opportunities they could see them get bouts for January, possibly with ShoXC.

"I'm sorry to those fighters who have been training hard and didn't get hurt and don't get their opportunity," Lawler said.

"We are right now actively seeking fights for many of the fighters on the card," Thompson said. "We know guys have been ready. I believe we have Kala Hose a fight Jan. 25 on Showtime television on the ShoXC event. We have a couple other local fighters as well we think we're going to get fights on that card, both on the televised part and on the undercard to try and fulfil some of those."