It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why UFC 208 was scrapped by the promotion.
The pay-per-view event that was set to go down in Anaheim on January 21 has been cancelled, as the UFC announced in a brief statement on Thursday.
This means that the event that was originally called UFC 209 set to take place in Brooklyn, New York on February 11 will now be listed as UFC 208. The good people of Anaheim will still get a UFC card next year, but that has been moved to August 5.
“UFC announced today that its Jan. 21 Pay-Per-View event at Honda Center in Anaheim, California has been rescheduled to Aug. 5. The event will remain a Pay-Per-View broadcast. UFC 208 will be shifted to the Feb. 11 event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.”
Changes made to #UFC208, #UFC209 events in Anaheim, Brooklyn ➡️ https://t.co/Yoq6Hkx0Ix pic.twitter.com/dp7v8noJQy
— UFC News (@UFCNews) December 1, 2016
Although there was official reason for the events being switched around, it’s more than likely due to the fact that the promotion could not find a suitable headline act that could sell pay-per-views.
This move follows UFC 206 losing the light-heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson when the champion was forced to withdraw due to injury. This fight was subsequently replaced by an interim featherweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway, and you got the impression the addition of a belt was solely done to somehow generate more hype for new the main event.
Every single UFC champion is either already booked for a fight, recuperating from a tough battle, injured, taking some time off (Conor McGegor) or is waiting for a number-one contender to emerge (Stipe Miocic). The Georges St-Pierre situation doesn’t seem like it’s going to resolve itself any time soon, while they would be fools to put Nick Diaz on one card short of 209.
There just wasn’t any stars left for UFC 208. Perhaps it might be time to reconsider the three-title fight supercards, or simply cut down the amount of cards they put in the calendar year.
