Shane Carwin out of co-main event against Roy Nelson at UFC 125

Former UFC heavyweight title challenger has bowed out of his co-main event fight with the season 10 winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” Roy Nelson.

Shane Carwin, the former interim champion, was last seen in action at UFC 116 when he was defeated by a resilient Brock Lesnar, in an attempt to vie for the promotion’s heavyweight title.

Brock, the former champion recently relinquished his title to current champion Cain Velasquez last Saturday at UFC 121 in Anaheim, Calif. after the proud Mexican heavyweight soundly defeated “The Baddest Man on the Planet” with effective strikes en route to a TKO victory inside of the first round.

The bout pitting Carwin and Nelson was set in order to have the victor climb the ladder once again towards the title picture, however “The Engineer” recently announced on his website Shane-Carwin.com that he has sustained a back injury that will keep him out of the January 1st bout for UFC 125, which was to serve co-headlining duties under the main event of the evening between current lightweight champion Frankie Edgar against undefeated challenger Gray Maynard.

“If the doctors do not have to perform surgery, then I will be out eight to 12 weeks,” wrote Carwin concerning his injury. “If they do have to perform surgery, I do not know how long I will be out of action

“This is a hard decision but the right one, and I hope Team Carwin can stand by me through this period of my career,” said Shane. “No one wants to get me back to winning more than me. I just need to be healthy to do it.”

So, MMA peeps, what do you make of the news? Who do you think would provide a suitable replacement for Carwin?

If we look at UFC 121, the heavyweight adorning the card who are not scheduled for further action thus far as Gabriel Gonzaga, Brendan Schaub, and of course Brock Lesnar.

I doubt a Gonzaga match up would be too appealing at this point, as the former title challenger is looking like damage goods at this point.

Brock and Nelson would certainly be interesting but it looks like Lesnar may be taking some time off to hunt as he originally intended.

And of course Schaub would provide an interesting opponent for Nelson, as they were both pitted against one another in the season 10 finale back in December, where the former IFL champion knocked out the Greg Jackson product inside of the first round. Both have taken a turn in their careers, where Schaub is at the cusp of top-10 infamy and Nelson is looking to get back on top of the division.

So what do you think guys? Sound off in the comment section below.