"[It's] just a meniscus tear," Hamill's trainer, Duff Holmes, told MMAjunkie.com. "He's going for a scope tomorrow, and we'll be back to training after three or four weeks of rehab."

With Matt Hamill out of the picture, Soszynski will now be tackling Brandon Vera in the intriguing light-heavyweight bout.

"It was something that just crept up on us and was getting worse and worse. It was really affecting his ability to go to the ground and was giving out on him. ... We are very disappointed with having to pull out, and we were really looking forward to the fight with Vera. He is a true mixed martial artist, and we were eager to test Matt against someone of his abilities."

UFC 102, which is headlined by Randy Couture vs. fellow former UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, marks Vera's fourth fight since dropping to light heavyweight after back-to-back losses to heavyweights Tim Sylvia and Fabricio Werdum. During his debut in 2008, Vera defeated Reese Andy via a lackluster unanimous decision but then suffered a split decision loss to Keith Jardine. He bounced back at UFC 96 earlier and scored an impressive second-round TKO over Michael Patt.

Soszynski, on the other hand, is looking forward to his fourth consecutive UFC win. He first fought for the Los Angeles Anacondas of the International Fight League (IFL). After the demise of that organization, he moved to the UFC, appearing on season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter where he defeated fellow cast member Shane Prime via submission at the show's live finale. Subsequently, he also defeated Brian Stann at UFC 97 and Andre Gusmao at UFC 98.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Sherdog.com, mmajunkie.com
(Image courtesy of matthamill.com)