Mark Munoz and his middleweight title fight plans were derailed after the dark horse of the 185-pound weight class, Chris Weidman, decided to stake his claim as one of the division's most dangerous fighters at the expense of "The Filipino Wrecking Machine" back on July, 11, 2012 at UFC on Fuel TV: "Munoz vs. Weidman."

Weidman stormed out of the gates, dominating the former NCAA Division-1 wrestling champion from the opening bell, on the feet, as well as on the ground.

Mixing up his well-rounded mixed martial arts (MMA) arsenal, the "All American" connected cleanly with a well-placed elbow to the nose of Munoz that sent him crashing to the canvas and spelled the end for the Filipino as Weidman unleashed a brutal ground-and-pound attack that lead to an eventual stoppage from the referee.

The "Knockout of the Night" performance catapulted Chris to the top of the list of contenders to face Anderson Silva for his 185-pound title, while sending Munoz all the way to the back of the line, forcing him to climb the ladder once again.

Now, that climb will take a bit longer as it seems Munoz could be sidelined for up to a year to recover from injuries he was dealing with prior to the bout with Weidman.

Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV recently spoke with the former Oklahoma State Cowboy and has the details after the jump:

"I hurt my foot training for the Weidman fight; I was training with Jason (Miller) inside the cage and my foot got caught. I am not sure if it is broken. I will be getting an official MRI tomorrow and I will know. I just hope they do not have to break it in order for it to heal properly as it has somewhat started to heal."

Aside from his foot injury, Munoz is also suffering from an existing elbow injury that he may have aggravated during his fight with Chris:

"When he (Weidman) was on top of me trying to get the guillotine I could feel that I did not have full motion in my elbow."

After the loss, Munoz came down with staph infection which spread to his knee and his forehead areas, as well:

"I went to the doctor and he took a look at it. He gave me a weird look and brought out a needle and I felt stuff coming out. I am just glad I took care of it early."

In a suddenly crowded middleweight division, it seems other contenders may have one less obstacle to worry about if Munoz is indeed out for a year. His desired matchup with Bellator import, Hector Lombard, who came up short against Tim Boetsch in his debut back at UFC 149, could be put on the shelf, as well.

When it rains it pours, as Munoz was recently coming off of an extended layoff prior to his fight with Weidman, as the aforementioned elbow injury forced him to pull out of his bout with Chael Sonnen which was set to go down at UFC on Fox 2 this past January.

Prior to that, Munoz had not seen action since defeating Chris Leben back on November of 2011.