UFC Announces UFC 233 in Anaheim Has Been Cancelled

With no main event and time running out until Jan. 26, the UFC has decided to scrap the upcoming UFC 233 card set to take place in Anaheim, Calif.

UFC officials announced the news on Wednesday.

“UFC today announced that the UFC 233 pay-per-view event scheduled for January 26 is postponed,” UFC officials wrote in a statement. “All bouts previously slated for UFC 233 are being rescheduled for upcoming cards. The February 10th pay-per-view event at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Australia will remain titled UFC 234: Whittaker vs. Gastelum. Tickets for UFC 234 sold out within minutes.

“UFC’s 2019 event calendar will still feature 12 Pay-Per-View events. Additional details about the postponed pay-per-view will be announced at a later date.”

While the UFC is saying the fight card has been ‘postponed’, there’s no plan to actually reschedule the card or another event titled ‘UFC 233’.

Instead, the fights that were already signed for UFC 233 will be shifted to other cards in the coming weeks and months.

The UFC had been scrambling for weeks trying to secure a high profile main event for the Jan. 26 pay-per-view but nothing ever came together.

The promotion hoped to book a welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Colby Covington but the reigning 170-pound champion was still dealing with recovery from thumb surgery following his last fight in September.

When that fight didn’t come together nor any alternatives that could help sell the pay-per-view, the UFC ultimately decided to scrap the card entirely.

This is the second time in the past two years where the UFC has been forced to scrap an event due to a lack of a main event. UFC 208 was originally scheduled for Jan. 21, 2017 in Anaheim but once again no main event was secured and the promotion was forced to scrap the card entirely

The UFC ended up just renaming the next pay-per-view card in February as UFC 208 but this time around there will be no changes made to rename UFC 234 in Australia. That card will remain UFC 234, which means UFC 233 will likely become a forgotten event that was cancelled.

Stay tuned on news for the fights from UFC 233 that will soon be shifted to new cards in the near future.