UFC President Dana White is facing a major problem with the UFC 222 pay-per-view event.
UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway was forced to pull out of his scheduled title defense against former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 222.
Now, the promotion is looking to find a new main event. With just a less than a month away from the event taking place, the UFC is looking at their options.
MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani noted on Twitter that Edgar would likely fight fellow contender Brian Ortega at the event. Also, despite the best attempts by the UFC of making a bantamweight title fight rematch between T.J. Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt, that fight won’t happen either as Dillashaw turned it down.
According to Helwani, the promotion may have to be forced into canceling the event instead of downgrading it to a Fight Night event on FOX Sports 1.
Doesn’t appear as though Dillashaw-Garbrandt will happen on 3/3. They also tried to book Cyborg-Kunitskaya but that’s not happening either. Canceling the card altogether is also on the table. They tried to book Edgar-Ortega on the Orlando card to beef that up but it’s too soon.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 6, 2018
So, lots still up in the air. Last resort is to cancel the card. They’d rather not turn it into a Fight Night but they’ll have to if they can’t produce a title fight and right now there just aren’t many title fight options for less than a month away. Developing.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 6, 2018
UFC 222 is set to take place on March 3, 2018, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and UFC Fight Pass. Here is the current card:
C.B. Dollaway vs. Hector Lombard
Andrei Arlovski vs. Stefan Struve
Mackenzie Dern vs. Ashley Yoder
Ketlen Vieira vs. Cat Zingano
Sean O’Malley vs. Andre Soukhamthath
Bryan Caraway vs. Cody Stamann
Jordan Johnson vs. Adam Milstead
Beneil Dariush vs. Bobby Green
When looking back on history, the last time that the promotion had to cancel a PPV event after losing its original main event was back in August of 2014 with UFC 176: Aldo vs. Mendes 2. The latest canceled UFC event was in October of 2016 with UFC Fight Night: Lamas vs. Penn in Manila, The Philippines.
Do you agree that the right call would be for the promotion to cancel this event? Let your voice be known in the comment section below.
