The coronavirus has devastated the global community over the last few weeks and professional MMA is no different. UFC Fight Night London was scheduled for this coming Saturday, but travel restrictions mandated by President Donald Trump have wreaked havoc on the card.
This Saturday’s UFC card won’t be taking place in London anymore, as UFC President Dana White said that the event will now happen at a location to be announced in the United States. That decision to change locations has destroyed the majority of the card, which looked like this before the travel restrictions:
Tyron Woodley (19-4-1) vs. Leon Edwards (18-3)
Molly McCann (10-2) vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith (6-4)
Darren Stewart (11-4, 1NC) vs. Marvin Vettori (14-4-1)
Paul Craig (12-4-1) vs. Ryan Spann (17-5)
Danny Roberts (17-5) vs. Nicolas Dalby (18-3-1)
Lerone Murphy (8-0-1) vs. Gabriel Benitez (21-7)
Marc Diakiese (14-3) vs. Jai Herbert (10-1)
Makwan Amirkhani (15-4) vs. Mike Grundy (12-1)
Jack Shore (12-0) vs. Geraldo De Freitas (12-5)
Kevin Holland (16-5) vs. Jack Marshman (23-9)
Tom Aspinali (7-2) vs. Jake Collier (10-4)
However, due to the travel restrictions, most of the bouts have either been canned altogether or a new opponent is needed for one of the competitors.
Ariel Helwani of ESPN obtained an email sent out by the UFC to managers/agents looking for fighters to fill next weekends card:
This is an email they are sending out to managers and reps about this new card next week. As you can see, they are even open to signing fighters who currently aren’t on the roster to fill it up, as well. pic.twitter.com/qYcYCDvdyo
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 15, 2020
Woodley versus Edwards, which is the main event of the show, is still on at this point, as long as Edwards can get to the United States within the next day or so:
Per sources, Leon Edwards has been told they still want to keep the fight between himself and Tyron Woodley on, but in the US. Edwards has been told he has to leave by this afternoon if he is to make it before the travel ban. Mental. #UFCLondon pic.twitter.com/xkKT1zj5cN
— Jim Edwards (@MMA_Jim) March 15, 2020
Dalby versus Roberts is canceled, according to an Instagram post by Roberts:
Marshman is off the card according to MMA Junkie and his opponent in Kevin Holland is expected to compete against a replacement opponent, while De Freitas versus Shore is off according to a report from the BBC and Evans-Smith versus McCann has also been pulled from the card according to MMA Junkie.
Diakese would take to Instagram to reveal his bout against Herbert has been canceled:
Benitez versus Murphy has also been canceled according to an Instagram post from Murphy:
John Kavanagh would take to Twitter to reveal that Philipps vs. Todorovic and Amirkhani vs. Grundy has also been canceled:
Gutted for @MakwanAmirkhani and @JohnPhillipsmma now that #UFCLondon is off. I really hope that @ufc can compensate them some % of their purse. They had invested heavily in their training camps moving to Dublin etc --
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) March 15, 2020
Fabinski versus Rakhmonov has been pulled from the card according to In The Cage:
Bartosz Fabiński will not fight next week at UFC on ESPN+ 29. He asked UFC to fight ASAP. We should get some more information in next 48 hours. https://t.co/6qHKFXVNSD
— InTheCage.pl (@InTheCagePL) March 15, 2020
So, with all of that going down, here is the current UFC card for this weekend, barring any fighter additions and the such:
Tyron Woodley (19-4-1) vs. Leon Edwards (18-3)
Darren Stewart (11-4, 1NC) vs. Marvin Vettori (14-4-1)
Paul Craig (12-4-1) vs. Ryan Spann (17-5)
Kevin Holland (16-5) vs. TBA
Tom Aspinali (7-2) vs. Jake Collier (10-4)
