UFC News: UFC 233 shockingly postponed indefinitely
What's the story?
UFC 233 was always a UFC pay-per-view event which appeared to be in danger. The lack of a proper main event was a huge source of worry for the event. Now, the fears appeared to have been proven true.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship fight promotion has now announced that their first scheduled pay-per-view will have to be rescheduled and has been postponed.
In case you didn't know...
UFC 233 was always in some amount of danger after being scheduled. Not only did it clash with Bellator 214: Fedor vs. Bader card, it also lacked a convincing main event.
There had been one fight which had seemingly had a lot of drawing power, with UFC Bantamweight Champion TJ Dillashaw moving down a weight division to challenge UFC Flyweight Champion Henry Cejudo. However, it was moved to UFC on ESPN+ 1, headlining the promotion's debut on their new broadcast partner.
The card had Robbie Lawler taking on Ben Askren, but the other between Dominick Cruz and John Linekar was axed following an injury suffered by Dominick Cruz.
The heart of the matter
The loss of the Dominick Cruz and Jonh Linekar fight proved to be too much for UFC.
With the rest of the fights still having some potential, they decided not to go ahead with it and postponed the card. Thankfully the card was not cancelled with UFC saying that there would still be 12 pay-per-view events in the year as had been earlier announced.
The next pay-per-view featuring UFC 234: Whittaker vs. Gastelum will also move forward as planned. It is only UFC 233, which will be postponed, with further details yet to be revealed by the company.
Here is their official statement.
"UFC today announced that the UFC 233 Pay-Per-View event scheduled for January 26 is postponed. 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."
What's next?
Ben Askren's debut fight against Robbie Lawler will be postponed as a result of this, with the fight moving to UFC 235 instead.
Stay tuned to Sportskeeda for further updates.