Dean Trueman injured, out of Cage Warriors 103 title fight against Soren Bak

MMAfighting.com

An injury has ruled defending Cage Warriors featherweight champion Dean Trueman out of his highly anticipated meeting with Soren Bak on Mar. 9.

Bak vacated his lightweight title in an effort to clinch his second promotional strap, but Trueman announced Friday via social media that he will not be able to compete at the Copenhagen date. MMA Fighting later confirmed the news.

According to Trueman’s post, which was later erased, an injury to his bicep has ruled him out of his first title defense.

“Bad news! Everyone who has bought tickets to my fight I have had to pull from the fight. The decision to pull was not made lightly and was certainly a hard decision to make. I have torn/ruptured my distal bicep tendon, I tried to continue training for a week with the tear and decided yesterday that I can’t fight,” Trueman’s post read.

“Everyone who knows me knows I have trained hard for this fight and really wanted to defend my belt but fighting with an injury is not a good choice for my career. I want to apologize to everyone who has booked flights, hotels and tickets as I feel I have let you down.

“On the other hand, I will be flying to Copenhagen to watch the show so we can all still make a weekend of it. Thank to everyone who was coming I really appreciate it my support is amazing.”

It is understood that Trueman must undergo an MRI to determine when he will be able to get back to action.

Although Cage Warriors are fully geared towards its Liverpool event on Saturday night, president Graham Boylan told MMA Fighting that there are “no shortage of options” in terms of a replacement for the champion for the Denmark event.

“We have no shortage of options. It will be fixed Monday, right now it’s all about Liverpool. The pull out was only made official to use late last night,” said Boylan.

Trueman (10-4-0) won the featherweight title after beating Team Renegade prospect Aiden Lee in the final of the divisional tournament at Cage Warriors 100. Before his third-round finish of Lee, Trueman booked his place in the final of the tournament with a one-sided decision win over Lewis Monarch.