After winning his third straight fight at Palace Fighting Championships 10, a cut suffered during the first round of the bout with Olaf Alonso will now force Phil Baroni out of a scheduled October 3rd bout at Strikeforce: Payback that is set to take place in Denver, CO.
“In the first round during an exchange Olaf hit Phil with his only big punch of the fight and it cut Phil” Baroni’s Agent Ken Pavia told MMANews.com. “It was significant enough that it required six stitches right in his eye lid.. Between the first and second round he realized he was cut and was like “Aww Man, now I can’t fight next week”.
Although an opponent was not announced for the Strikeforce fight, likely due to the fact Baroni was fighting this week, the organization was confident that “The New York Bad Ass” would come out of the fight without an injuries.
“He had the PFC fight inked when Strikeforce came to use but they felt that Phil would come out unscathed so we took the fight even though it was going to be a tough cut for two consecutives weeks. There will always be intangibles and anything could happen.”
Baroni is now in the process of reinventing himself in the 170lb division after putting together a 10-10 record at middleweight and realizing he needed to make a change to continue to be considered a worthwhile fighter in the sport. With the Strikeforce bout now off, next up for Baroni will be his wedding.
“Phil is getting married on October 12th and then he will be on his honeymoon which usually means cheating on your diet,” joked the MMA super agent.
The cut will most likely take about 30-40 days to heal and Pavia figures that if all goes well they will get one more bout in before years end.
