It was announced overnight that UFC Fight Night 171 was no longer going to take place in London’s O2 Arena due to the U.S. travel restrictions put in place amid the outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19.
At the time of writing, the alternative location of the event has yet to be announced.
As a result of the show’s relocation, a number of fighters have had to pull out of their scheduled bouts.
This includes Leon Edwards, who was set to be one half of the main event. It’s unclear whether his original opponent Tyron Woodley will compete at all as the UFC scrambles to find a replacement for Edwards.
“Last night I went to sleep still with some hope that UFC London would continue next week,” Edwards wrote on Instagram. “I woke up this morning to the news that it won’t be. We have been working with the UFC on possible solutions to keep the fight alive, but unfortunately with such a short window of time, nothing was viable.
“Myself and my team are all fathers, husbands, sons and brothers, and not all of us can leave our families right now. I wish we could have found a way for the fans, I truly do.
“I have been dreaming of headlining a UFC show in my home country since I started this sport. This cancellation is truly heartbreaking. I have never worked harder and never been more prepared for the biggest moment in my career,” he continued. “But I know that the whole world is hurting right now and this is bigger than me, this is bigger than sports. All I can hope for is that all of you stay safe and look after each other as we get past this and move forward.
“I am humbled by the thousands of messages of support I have received in the hours since the announcement, I truly appreciate you all and feel a lot of love right now. I look forward to this event being re-booked when it is safe to do so, so Tyron and I can put on the show that you all deserve.”
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani took to Twitter to say that the UFC have been issuing emails to fighter management to find last-minute replacements for the event next weekend.
According to Sherdog, the following UFC London bouts have been confirmed as cancelled through reports or by the fighters themselves: Nicolas Dalby vs. Danny Roberts; Kevin Holland vs. Jack Marshman; Geraldo de Freitas Jr. vs. Jack Shore; Marc Diakiese vs. Jai Herbert; Gabriel Benitez vs. Lerone Murphy; Ashlee Evans-Smith vs. Molly McCann; Makwan Amirkhani vs. Mike Grundy; John Phillips vs. Dusko Todorovic and Bartosz Fabinski vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov.
As you can see, there are a lot of fights to fill if UFC Fight Night 171 is to go ahead as planned on Saturday.
