It has been one of the greatest years in MMA history due to the continued growth of the sport. Most recently, the first UFC card held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. The UFC also debuted in Cleveland in September and had a gigantic UFC card in July. Perhaps the biggest show ever (200).
However, despite the record year, it was easily the worst when it came to Main Events getting changed and also cancelled. Most recently UFC 206 this coming weekend because of injury and now a failed weight cut. Several reasons have led to the mayhem all year, and the fallout was horrendous for several parties each time. 17 Main events in all have either been cancelled or switched for a variety of reasons.
Let’s take a trip back in time to review exactly how much chaos was caused this year by injuries, PED suspensions, media obligation boycotts, failed weight cuts and lord knows what else.
February 6th UFC Fight Night
The event was originally billed as UFC 196 and was scheduled to be headlined by a UFC Heavyweight Championship rematch champion Fabrício Werdum and former two-time champion Cain Velasquez. This was supposed to be the traditional Superbowl Weekend mega card, but soon fell apart.
Velasquez pulled out of the bout due to a back injury and was replaced by Stipe Miocic. Werdum wasted no time in ducking Stipe and on the following day, Werdum announced that he was pulling out of the event due to injury as well as he wasn’t comfortable with the opponent change while dealing with injuries of his own. Stipe would eventually get his shot at Werdums title and cash in.
The Fallout – Because of the injuries and fighters pulling out of the main event, on January 26 UFC President Dana White announced the company was canceling the pay-per-view broadcast. Therefore, UFC 196 became a Fight Night card.
February 21 UFC Fight Night
The original main event was supposed to be a welterweight bout between Donald Cerrone and Tim Means. This bout would never see the light of day as it was announced that Means was informed of a potential USADA anti-doping policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection.
The Fallout – Tim Means would be pulled from the card and replaced with Alex Oliveira. Cerrone has no problems and ran right through him, even on the short notice.
February 27th UFC Fight Night
The original main event was scheduled to be Michael Bisping vs Gegard Mousasi. Then, for reasons never truly related Mousasi was replaced by former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva in the main event.
The Fallout – Bisping picked up the biggest win of his career by knocking off Silva by a decision.
UFC 196 in March is when all holy hell broke loose and the man who tried to save it (Conor McGregor ended up losing the most).
The main event was supposed to feature a UFC Heavyweight Championship rematch between champion Fabrício Werdum and former two-time champion Cain Velasquez, and yet again that main event was canceled due to an injury to Cain Velasquez.
The event was then expected to be headlined by a UFC Lightweight Championship bout between champion Rafael dos Anjos and UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor. This was a match that had great intrigue to it because this would have been the second time in UFC history that champions in different divisions would fight for the same title.
Once again, UFC 196 would suffer a massive blow as just 12 days before the fight, the champion dos Anjos pulled out due to a broken foot. This left the show with no main event just 12 days before the Pay Per View.
McGregor was pissed, and still wanted a fight, but suddenly all these men with big ego’s seemed to have turned off the phones as their courage as former UFC Featherweight Champion José Aldo declined the initial opportunity to replace him due to “lack of time” to prepare for the bout. Frankie Edgar was the next in lines to step into the main event but also declined the opportunity due to a groin injury.
This is where things went from odd to truly strange and unheard off when out of nowhere and for absolutely no reason, Nate Diaz took the fight with McGregor at 170. 25 pounds up from McGregor’s championship weight at Feather.
The Fallout – The result for McGregor couldn’t have gone any worse, as he lost for the first time in his UFC career with a second round guillotine to Nate Diaz.
April would carry with it, the same main event hi-jinx that March had.
UFC Fight Night April 16
The UFC Lightweight Championship title eliminator bout between undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson was scrapped when Ferguson pulled out of the bout due to a lung issue.
The Fallout – Ferguson would eventually return bigger and better then ever, as did Nurmagomedov. This match will still need to happen, the fans deserve it.
UFC 197 April 23
The UFC attempted twice this year to have a UFC Light Heavyweight Championship rematch between current champion Daniel Cormier and former champion Jon Jones. This was the original main event scheduled for UFC 197 on this night. However, as it would later in the summer, it would get canceled on this card as well when Cormier injured his foot and had to pull out.
The Fallout – Jones would defeat Ovince St. Preux in the main event instead to become the UFC Light Heavyweight interim champion. A title stripped from him not too much later because of a PED violation.
After a calm May, things would heat back up again with fighters having to pull out of big fights.
UFC 199 June 4
The event was expected to be headlined by a UFC Middleweight Championship rematch between champion Luke Rockhold and former champion Chris Weidman. This was a rematch of UFC 194, when Rockhold won Weidman’s title via fourth round TKO. Weidman pulled out on May 17 due to a large extrusion herniation on his neck.
The Fallout – Michael Bisping would step in on 16 days’ notice and shock the MMA world with a first round knockout of Rockhold.
UFC 200 July 9
It would become the zaniest set of circumstances that led to constant switching of the main event in what seemed like every other week.
A welterweight rematch between The Ultimate Fighter 5 winner and former lightweight title challenger Nate Diaz and current UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor was originally expected to headline the event.
However, McGregor refused to do the months ahead of time pre-press conference in favor of wanting to train, and because of that, Dana White and the UFC canceled the match. On April 19, after McGregor tweeted a supposed retirement, the UFC announced that he was pulled from the event and a replacement for him was being sought. UFC President Dana White clarified that McGregor’s removal was related to his refusal to come to a press conference that week.
The fun wasn’t over with yet, it was just beginning as on April 27, the UFC officially announced the new headliner as a UFC Light Heavyweight Championship unification rematch between the champion Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones.
Once again, the fate of the MMA was altered when just two days before the fight, it was announced that Jones was pulled out by USADA due to a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection on June 16.
It was then briefly rumored that the new main event would be Brock Lesnar vs Mark Hunt until that was scrapped for the already scheduled UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship bout between then champion Miesha Tate and top contender Amanda Nunes instead.
The Fallout – The little heard of Nunes would come through on the biggest state and destroy Tate. Taking her title in under a round as she dominated and bloodied her.
A few days after UFC 200, the mishaps and changes continued, as this time it was the
Fight Night on July 13
The original main event was between Tony Ferguson and Michael Chiesa, however, Chiesa pulled out due to a back injury on June 27. Ferguson would end up facing Lando Vannata instead on the undercard, and the new main event became John Lineker vs Michael McDonald.
The Fallout – Wasn’t much considering Ferguson rolled through Vannata with ease with a second round Darce choke and has remained red hot since, setting himself up for a Lightweight Championship bout with current champ Conor McGregor sometime in 2017.
10 days later it was the next event having it’s main bout canceled.
UFC Fight Night July 23
A bout between former UFC Light Heavyweight Championship challengers Anthony Johnson and Glover Teixeira was expected to serve as the co-main event. However, Johnson pulled out on June 18 to tend to personal issues.
The new main event became former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm taking on multiple-time Muay Thai world champion Valentina Shevchenko.
The Fallout – Holm loses her second straight fight and the win over Rousey looks even more like a fluke victory. Meanwhile, the Texeira vs Johnson fight was moved to UFC 202 where Johnson knocked him out cold in under 20 seconds.
UFC 201 July 30
Another pay per view would have its main event switched as A UFC Flyweight Championship bout between current champion Demetrious Johnson and challenger Wilson Reis was expected but on July 8, it was announced that Johnson pulled out due to an undisclosed injury and the bout was postponed.
The Fallout – The event was headlined by a UFC Welterweight Championship bout between then champion Robbie Lawler and top contender Tyron Woodley. It was a bad night for Lawler as he was knocked out within three minutes.
Well,,,,, after a year of switches and cancelations, I guess it was only a matter of time before the UFC had to cancel an entire card., and that is exactly what happened next.
UFC Fight Night Penn vs Lamas October 15
A featherweight bout between former title challenger Ricardo Lamas and former UFC Lightweight and Welterweight Champion BJ Penn was expected to serve as the main event. Considering the legacy of Penn and him making his first fight back, this could have been huge for the promotion, but alas, it went south. On October 4, Penn pulled out of the fight citing an injury.
The Fallout – The UFC announced on October 6 that they had cancelled the event entirely. Also, the remaining fighters on the card were awarded their contracted show money despite not competing.
UFC Fight Pass November 19
A welterweight bout between ranked contenders Dong Hyun Kim and Gunnar Nelson was expected to serve as the headliner of the event. However on October 21, it was announced that Nelson pulled out due to an injury and the fight was off.
The Fallout – A match between Gegard Mousasi and Uriah Hall was announced as the new main event. Mousasi continued his big year, with and avenged an earlier loss to Hall with a first round knockout. Mousasi went 4-0 this year.
UFC Fight Night Nov 19
The event was initially expected to be headlined by a light heavyweight bout between former two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Championship challenger Alexander Gustafsson and Antônio Rogério Nogueira. On September 30, Gustafsson pulled out of the bout citing an injury.
The Fallout – Gustafsson was replaced by Ryan Bader who dominated Nogueira and eventually won by TKO in the later stages of the third round.
UFC Fight Night Nov 26
The event was expected to be headlined by a middleweight rematch between former Strikeforce and UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold and former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Ronaldo Souza. On November 1, Rockhold was ruled out of the contest due to a sprained ACL.
The Fallout – A middleweight bout between Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson replaced it. Whittaker won with a first round head kick knockout.
UFC 206 December 10
Tonight’s UFC carried on the year long tradition of main event cancels when Daniel Cormier pulled out of his UFC Light Heavyweight title defense against Rumble Johnson per injury. It would be replaced with a Interim UFC Featherweight title match between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway. However, even that got twisted around yesterday when Pettis missed weight.
Fallout – Only Holloway can win the title tonight, if Pettis wins, it will just be a victory but he will not become champion.
In total, it was
12 Main event fights canceled or switched because of injury.
2 Main Events fight canceled because of PED Doping violations.
1 Main Event canceled because of press conference issues
1 Main Event switched for reasons never even given
1 Main Event switched for a weight cut failure
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