Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports! reports that UFC 176 has been cancelled due to the lack of a replacement main event for Jose Aldo-Chad Mendes. Aldo suffered a neck injury during training which forced him out although the UFC plans to postpone this fight until October.
It’s the second time in the company’s history that it has had to cancel a PPV as most recall UFC 151 was nixed due to an injury to Dan Henderson. All of the fights that were scheduled for the August 2nd event in Los Angeles will be assigned to other events. In an interview with Fox Sports Live, Lorenzo Fertitta was not optimistic about a card at the Staples Center any time soon.
The cancellation comes on the same day with MMA Junkie reporting that UFC 176 had sold $800,000 in tickets thus far. Now, those tickets will have to be refunded.
Payout Perspective:
The news of the cancellation has to be a big blow for the UFC as its unlikely it can run another event in Los Angeles any time soon. But, without a main event, it would have suffered and would have received a buy rate comparable to the rumored buy rate of UFC 174. Still, the rest of the card has some compelling match-ups (Jacare-Mousasi, Corriea-Basler and Corriea’s quest to run through the Horsewomen, Green-Trujillo and Castillo-Ferguson) which will complement other cards upcoming.
The cancellation indirectly hurts Metamoris’ event on August 9th as it likely would have been able to do some promotion (thinking guerilla marketing) with the UFC in town.
Pink Pig says
Oink oink!
D says
One of Sampson’s many aliases.
Pink Pig says
Oink oink! Just call me Dana
D says
I call you who you are, Sampson. Haha.
LeonThePro says
Wow! It’s now official – the UFC has spread themselves too thin. One fighter out and ZERO legit replacements equals cancelling PPVs and refunding tickets now. 2 years ago, this was unfathomable; now I see it being a regular occurrence.
Not only that, there’s news that an interim belt will be on the line if Aldo can’t be ready by October. Wow.. let guys like D. Cruz and Pettis sit on the sidelines but tell Aldo to get his shit together in a couple of months, or else?! He must not be in good with UFC brass.
I’m thinking UFC should just keep adding weight classes like atom weight women and straw weight men, that should do the trick (insert eye roll).
Andre says
@leon you consider 2 times in 2 years to be a regular occurrence? lol
tops E says
Hahahahahahahahahaha
tops E says
S and p will take note of this hahaha
Diego says
Aldo has been getting injured a lot. Cain is still out. Alvarez had to pull out of his fight. Training injuries in MMA seem to be much greater than in boxing. It just goes to show what a brutal sport this is and how difficult it is for fighters to make a living. If they’re not fighting, they’re not getting paid.
FightBusiness says
One way to preserve a fighters career in mma would be to implement a standing 10 count when a fighter gets knocked down from a strike. currently you can follow up with several punches that creates brain damamge.
Jason Cruz says
@Diego – I think you hit the nail on the head with what’s the problem. Sure, everyone will say oversaturation (and I’m not arguing either way on that one right now), but Aldo, Pettis and Cain seemed to get injured a lot during training. It happens but its rare in boxing for boxers to pull out so close to an event.
LeonThePro says
If you can’t stop the injuries (not arguing either way), then perhaps it would be better to do less PPVs with 2 title fights, so you can bump and shuffle fights around easier.
If the UFC did <10 PPVs they could beef cards up more and be pro-active in dealing with fight cancellations.
D says
Haha. FightBusiness, everything you post is always dead wrong.
First off, it wouldn’t be mma if there were standing 8 counts. Second, the brain damage comes from those standing 8 counts. It is better to get ko’d quickly with a few big punches than it is to go the length of a fight sustaining damage while getting dropped and then allowing someone to take a break and come back for more of a beating. If your analysis was correct we would see a number of cases of mma fighters with dementia seeing how the sport has been around for over 20 years, and we don’t have a single one who solely has it from mma. Yet, the very face of boxing, Muhammad Ali has dementia from boxing and plenty of others have.
D says
Leon, 2 years ago this would be unfathomable? See Henderson-Jones.
tops E says
Do they reset the number?hahaha….so ufc 200 ia really 198 haha
D says
Does tops ever stop foaming at the mouth? Haha.
LeonThePro says
I know … 151 was <2 years ago. Sept. 2012 I believe, thanks for the correction.
D says
Haha. Nice technicality.
Diego says
Fightbusiness,
I think D is right about standing 8 counts. While the science is not yet fully understood the general scientific consensus to date is that repeated trauma (getting knocked down, being given the chance to clear your head and then going back in for more) is worse than getting knocked down once, taking a few follow up shots and then having the fight stopped.
Regardless, the injuries I was referring to are injuries in training many of which do not occur nearly as frequently in boxing (knees, backs, necks, shoulders, etc). When you add those injuries to the injuries that are more common to boxing that also happen in MMA (broken hands, cuts, torn biceps) you get a lot more MMA guys pulling out of events, and often staying out for longer periods of time than their boxing counterparts.
saldathief says
More bad news to the long list of 2014. Blowing a show in LA, a major city. But its a lot better then losing millions. MMA fighters train wrong and too long, run them self down and are stuck in this 10 year old dogma of training for 8 hrs a day IMO. Most MMA coaches have been doing it less then 10 years, have no idea what they are doing, and have very little trial and error to go by. The more is better idea can only work for a few people. Anyone that trains more than 4 hrs a day is going to run into problems unless they are on serious drugs, and even then its most likely too much. These guys think that if they dont train for 8 hrs a day they arnt real mma fighters. The sport is still young and they havnt developed optimal training for most, not all fighters. Also fighters tend to have boxing trainers, wrestling trainers, Muy Thia trainers, BJJ trainers the list goes on. Too many chefs ruin the pot. Once again this is my opinion from information I have read, seen and experienced. Also 5 min rounds hurts guys in training,
Logical says
Usually when you have a PPV card that is not going to live up to expectations it will get turned into a free TV card. The UFC has many options on how to air it, including Fight Pass. What this really means is that all that BS talk about how they were doing well at the gate even without a main event was pure BS. The Staples Center is used to big fights/shows and they were not having any of this nonsense.
I know this gets thrown around a lot but it is true, if the UFC keeps on with their watered down product, then cancelled events are going to become the norm instead of the exception.
LeonThePro says
Lorenzo Fertitta on Fox Sports Live regarding fight quantity:
CHARISSA THOMPSON: “What do you say when people ask you the question is this a sign of too many fights?”
LORENZO FERTITTA: “You know what? Um, I don’t think so. I think, you know, sometimes these come-and-go, a kind of ebb-and-flow. Last year, we went through the entire year and I don’t think we had to replace one card. You know, this year unfortunately this happened and overall at the end of the day, um, we have all of these guys coming back and I think the Fall for us, the line-up in the Fall is going to be pretty strong as all of our champions are coming back and we’ve got some loaded cards on Fox Sports 1 as well. So, we’re excited about moving forward from here.”
D says
Sal, you have zero experience, don’t act like you do. You’ve never stepped foot inside a gym unless it was a karate dojo with a bunch of kids.
Those trainers are necessary, not to mention in any major gym like Jackson’s, AKA, etc. they all have head trainers that develop a game plan so it isn’t some disorganized training camp like you are implying. Also, most mma coaches have been doing this for longer than 10 years, you don’t know what you are talking about.
The Greatest says
Yea but the boxing coaches are straight up ass in the MMA world.
If your a boxing coach in mma then you probably couldn’t make it being a trainer in the sport of actual boxing.
Occasionally the big names get some sessions with a Freddie Roach type trainer but most of the time its some nobody.
I cant verify but its probably the same across the board, regarding wrestling trainers, muay thai trainers, and so on.
D says
The Gayest !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Greatest says
There he is folks.
The same usual D-bitch.
D says
The Gayest!!
The Greatest says
Whats your prediction for Canelo-Lara ppv numbers?
How bout Mayweather-Maidana II?
Mayweather is going to have the top 2 spots again.
Boxing wins
D says
The Gayest!!!!!
The Greatest says
D your losin it bro.
D says
The Gayest!!!!
Pink Pig says
Seriously losing it and I AM for one… LOVING IT!!!
UFC is going the way of the shitter.
D says
Yeah, that is why this website is flooded with insecure boxing fans that use countless aliases. Hahaha.
The Greatest says
Its flooded with boxing fans because you mma fans ran your mouths for years and its fun to prove you bitches wrong.
I only come on here to put D down because this is literally all you do.
You constantly try to put down boxing in every one of your posts.
Someone could be talking about football and you will bring up a way to take a shot at boxing. Ive seen you do it.
D says
The Gayest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!