Swick slips up, out of UFC 103

The UFC welterweight division underwent a slight shift, a mere tremor, on Friday as Mike Swick posted on his Twitter account that he is pulling out of his UFC 103: Belfort vs. Franklin fight with Martin Kampmann because of an injury.

Swick stated that he “got foot swept while sparring this week and lost my legs. Landed on back of my head and neck and suffered a pretty bad concussion.”

The winner of Swick-Kampmann, set for September 19 in Dallas, was expected to challenge Georges St. Pierre for the title, likely on the UFC’s year-end card.

Word is that UFC 103 undercard fighter and UFC noob Paul Daley will replace Swick, while there’s no word on who will replace Daley against Brian Foster.

A win for Kampmann could still put him in line to meet GSP. The hard-striking Dutchman has gone 2-0 since being banished from the middleweight division by Nate Marquardt at UFC 88. Kampmann last competed at UFC Fight Night 18: Condit vs. Kampmann, spoiling the Octagon debut of WEC welterweight champ Carlos Condit. He defeated Alexandre Barros via second-round technical knockout at UFC 93 in his 170-pound debut.

Daley, an Affliction transplant, will be making his UFC debut, so a crack at GSP is still a few fights away. The British slugger is 21-8-2 with 16 wins by KO or TKO but has zero ground game (unlike Kampmann, who is 15-2 with five submission wins).

UFC 103 is headlined by a 195-pound catchweight contest between Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort. Also on the main card is a heavyweight tilt between former PRIDE superstar Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and heavyweight prospect Junior Dos Santos; Josh Koscheck will face Frank “Twinkle Toes” Trigg in a welterweight match-up; and Hermes Franca and Tyson Griffin square of in a lightweight fight.