A mere two weeks after a long rumored heavyweight fight between Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson was finally confirmed, and it fell apart.

Shane Carwin on Tuesday morning, via his website, announced that he is pulling out of the fight due to damage in his back that may require surgery.

The two were scheduled to meet on Jan. 1 in the co-main event of UFC 125 in Las Vegas.

“I had an MRI yesterday and I have some damage (to my back) that may really require surgery. If the doctors do not have to perform surgery then I will be out 8-12 weeks. If they do have to perform surgery I do not know how long I will be out of action,” he revealed.

Even before heading in to see a surgeon about his condition, Carwin appears to be leaning towards the surgical option.

“I am going to be speaking with the surgeon this week about the surgery. My thoughts are if the surgery fixes it, why add 8-12 weeks of physical therapy, epidurals, and traction, if surgery may still be needed.”

Carwin was looking forward to testing out a new training regimen implemented by Jonathan Chaimberg, which he hoped would counter the lactic acidosis problem he faced in his last fight with Brock Lesnar.

“The good news is the doctors said I can work on my cardio (they must have seen my last fight lol) with this injury,” he added.

“This is a hard decision, but the right one.”

There had been no word on a new UFC 125 opponent for Roy Nelson as of the time of publication.