The UFC has canceled its January PPV originally scheduled for Anaheim on January 26th due to lack of a main event. The event was to be held on the same night as Bellator’s card in Los Angeles.
When news hit of the cancellation, Bellator Scott Coker took to twitter:
— Scott Coker (@ScottCoker) December 12, 2018
Bellator 214 will include the finals of the Heavyweight Grand Prix and Ryan Bader takes on Fedor. Also, probably the fight of the night features Gegard Mousasi taking on Rafael Lovato, Jr. for the middleweight title.
The UFC 233 card was to feature a fight between Henry Cejudo and T.J. Dillashaw for Cejudo’s 125-pound title. But that fight was moved up a week to the ESPN debut card in Brooklyn, New York. A welterweight title defense with Tyron Woodley was contemplated but never materialized. The card was to have included the debut of Ben Askren as he would have faced Robbie Lawler.
Anaheim will get a UFC event later in the year. This is the third time in UFC history that the company has called off a PPV.
Payout Perspective:
Bellator looks like they will claim this as a win for their promotion as the UFC had to cancel this event. It’s clear the UFC is more interested in its debut on ESPN the week before than they are its PPV which is a reversal of what you would think its bottom would be. But, first impressions likely mean a lot here and the UFC believed moving the title fight to the ESPN debut would draw better ratings than its would PPV buys. With this news, Bellator will hope to capitalize on the one event fight night in SoCal.
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