(George Galanis is an MMA fan, freelance journalist and regular BPL contributor.)

The UFC and its fighters have been having a rough time of it lately.

It was recently announced that UFC 130's lightweight championship main event fight had to be cancelled because both Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard were found to have injuries. Three days later, the UFC announced that Brock Lesnar had a recurrence of diverticulitis and has been forced out of his UFC 131 matchup with Junior dos Santos. While 24 hours after the Lesnar announcement, it was revealed that light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones would be sidelined from training until mid-June with an injured thumb.

While the news was bad enough on its own merits, it came with its own accompanying baggage: a public backlash. The phenomenon is nothing new, but it remains as puzzling as ever. Do these men and women who get in a cage and fight for a living really have anything to prove about their courage? 

On the one hand, it's easy to understand why mixed martial arts followers would be disappointed when fighters are forced out of action. In the event when an entire match is canceled — as in the instance of Edgar-Maynard —it's even clearer. Viewers always hope for the best fights, and are disappointed when they don't happen. But on the other hand, the accusations that are casually hurled at fighters afterward are often ridiculously over the top and border on downright hysterical. 

People need to realise that fighters — especially those ate the top-level — do not make these decisions in a vacuum. They speak to multiple doctors, their management team, and the UFC heirarchy beforehand. 

When fighters withdraw from a fight, they lose their fight purse, sponsorship money, the possibility of a win bonus, nightly fight bonus and, in the case of major fighters like Lesnar and Jones, they miss out on a small fortune in pay-per-view money. Sitting on the sidelines is an amazingly costly decision that penalises them much more than time. Still, they often get accused of ulterior motives, or worse: of faking it. 

Let's look at each individual case. 

In the first case, Edgar's injury went largely unquestioned, but Maynard did not fare so well in the court of public opinion. Some felt it was rather convenient that the challenger could get injured at the same time and be forced out of the event as well, thereby ensuring he would stay in line for a title shot. 

But in preparation for competition, fighters often keep well-guarded secrets, and Maynard was doing just that. About four to five weeks ago, he was cut over the eye and needed stitches. Aside from that, he had hurt his knee in training. According to sources in Maynard's circle, he was having a very rough training camp, but chose to battle his way through it, especially with a championship on the line. When Edgar pulled out, the decision to do the same was essentially made for him. It's one thing to take a calculated gamble with so much to gain; it's another to do it with so much to lose. It's the law of diminished returns, as applied to MMA. 

In the next instance, a second bout of diverticulitis caused Lesnar to remove himself from a June matchup with Junior dos Santos. 

Immediately after the announcement, there was an adverse public response towards Lesnar, who often seems to be the subject of crazy conspiracy theories. If you think back a few months, you might remember that when the fight was first announced, and then Shane Carwin was announced against a "to-be-named opponent," many suggested that Carwin was the contingency plan because Lesnar might pull out. 

The truth is that diverticulitis flare-ups are quite common, and that Lesnar was simply betrayed by his own body. Though he gets top level medical care at the world renowned Mayo Clinic, he said his doctors couldn't name another professional athlete who was suffering from the disease, which often leaves him in extreme pain, saps him of energy and robs him of the ability to train properly. 

The thinly veiled suggestions that Lesnar is suddenly afraid to fight are ridiculous when placed in the proper context of his career. This is a man who wasn't afraid to try out for the NFL, despite not playing since high school and who jumped into high-level MMA after one year of training. 

Finally, the case of Jones is perhaps the most confusing. Jones' announcement was good news - he wasn't having surgery. But people were still angry, because he can't fight Rashad Evans. Instead, he'll return a month or two later. 

Essentially, he announced he'd return sooner than originally thought, yet some people are mad about it. Hmm, wouldn't this actually be a cause for celebration? 

Jones saw multiple doctors, and finally, in a follow-up consultation, he found one that told him he could continue on without surgery. But that just isn't good enough for some, as though Jones has a medical degree and should have foreseen the solution before it arrived. 

When the hype and the public-fuelled controversy of injury announcements are stripped away, the reality of the situation is quite different. It's Maynard rehabbing his knee, Lesnar facing the possibility of surgery, and Jones deciding against surgery so he can return earlier than expected. 

Questioning their hearts or their minds at such moments seems to be a low blow. From the perspective of fans and the media, of course we want to see the best possible fights all the time, but we should also want to see the best possible fights, with fit and healthy fighters performing at their best.