The UFC 176 fight card, which was originally scheduled for August 2nd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, has been scrapped altogether following the injury of current featherweight champion José Aldo.
"Junior", who was suddenly shelved because of a neck injury, was slated to face Chad "Money" Mendes in a rematch with the 145-pound title on the line.
The cancellation of the UFC 176 fight card is not the first of its kind of instance. In 2012, UFC 151 was scheduled for September of that year, headlined by reigning light heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones and mixed martial arts veteran and PRIDE FC legend Dan "Hendo" Henderson.
The fight was also cancelled due to an injury suffered by "Hendo" just a few weeks before the said event.
Company CEO Lorenzo Fertita shed light on the UFC 176 fight card cancellation, in an interview with Yahoo! Sports.
"At the end of the day, this doesn't happen very often, but in pay-per-views, we want to maintain where we have a title on the line," Fertitta explained. "Unless it's a special event, like an Anderson Silva or something like that, we want [to have a title fight headline] a pay-per-view, so we've decided to go ahead and postpone the event."
Fertita also explained the gravity of José Aldo's injury, and has stated that the date of his comeback is still up in the air as of the moment.
"Basically, doctors told him no contact and no training for three weeks, and we're one week into that," Fertita said. "We'll regroup in a couple of weeks and we'll have some news at that point."
The UFC executive, however, has considered the idea of putting up an interim title fight between the top contenders of the 145-pound division while the champion recuperates from his injury.
"We've got some other great contenders in Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson that certainly could step up and vie for some type of an interim title," he said in a separate interveiw with FOX Sports 1 regarding the UFC 176 fight card cancellation.
