A group of potentially violent football supporters have forced the UFC to pull a fight from their event in Gdansk on the eve of the card.
UFC Fight Night 118 takes place in the Ergo Arena on Saturday night but the card will be slightly shorter than scheduled after UFC officials made the decision to scrap the heavyweight meeting between Adam Wieczorek and Anthony Hamilton.
Both men were missing from the ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday before it was decided to pull the fight completely and reschedule it for UFC Fight Night 121 in Sydney, Australia next month.
The reason for the cancellation was the potential presence of Lechia Gdansk “ultras” which sparked concerns about fans’ safety, according to a report from MMA Junkie.
Wieczorek, who was set to make his UFC debut against Hamilton, supports Ruch Chorzow, a rival of Lechia Gdansk from South Poland, and after some unseemly scenes on Friday, it was felt that it would be safer for everybody involved to just remove the bout from the bill.
Police in riot gear were in attendance at the weigh-in ceremony on Friday and were checking fans’ identification to make sure that they were not known to officers.
UFC Gdansk will be headlined by a welterweight clash between Liverpool’s Darren Till and fan favourite veteran, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.
