UFC officials confirmed Friday night that a rematch between Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua will be postponed because the UFC light-heavyweight champ requires surgery to one of his hands.

Machida injured his hand in a controversial win over Rua at UFC 104 a few weeks ago. Many fans, including UFC president Dana White were disappointed with the judges results and called for a rematch.

White had hoped to pit the two Brazilians against one another on Jan. 2 at one of its traditional major events of the year at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Rua had agreed to the date but Machida’s surgery will postpone any rematch till his hand has recovered.

This news follows other injuries and illnesses to the other UFC title holders.

UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar withdrew from his UFC 106 bout with Shane Carwin due to an influenza like illness and has been rescheduled for UFC 108. Middleweight champ Anderson Silva has been dealing with surgery to his elbow and question remains whether he will meet Vitor Belfort on Jan. 2. And welterweight champion George St-Pierre has been out of action for months with a torn abductor muscle suffered at UFC 100, won’t be available till March most likely.

The only UFC title holder who has not had to reschedule his fight is BJ Penn, who faces Diego Sanchez at UFC 106 in Memphis, Tenn. in December.

Source: Yahoo! Sports