UFC 176 has been postponed indefinitely one week after an injury to featherweight champion Jose Aldo forced the cancellation of the main event, the promotion announced.
The pay-per-view event was scheduled to take place Aug. 2 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Instead of finding a new main event, the UFC shelved the entire card.
In a statement, the UFC announced their upcoming Aug. 30 event in Sacramento would remain titled UFC 177: Dillashaw vs Barao II rather than be rebranded as UFC 176.
Aldo, who was looking to defend his title against top 145-pound contender Chad Mendes, hurt his labrum and herniated a cervical disc in training. The bout was a rematch two-and-a-half years in the making; Aldo handed Mendes his first and only career loss when he knocked him out with a knee back when the two met in the main event of UFC 142 in Brazil in January 2012.
“I think [Aldo-Mendes] will be in October, but we’re not going to know probably for about two weeks what the status of Jose is,” UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta told Yahoo! Sports. “Basically, doctors told him no contact and no training for three weeks, and we’re one week into that. We’ll regroup in a couple of weeks and we’ll have some news at that point.”
Fans that had purchased tickets to the event are being offered full refunds, and a handful of fights scheduled for UFC 176 have been shifted to other events.
The UFC 176 co-main event, a middleweight scrap between Gegard Mousasi and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, is now set for a Sept. 5 UFC Fight Night event in Connecticut.
A flyweight tilt between rising 125-pound contenders Zach Makovsky and Jussier Formiga was moved to the Aug. 16 UFC Fight Night card in Bangor, Maine. Also moved to that event was a lightweight bout between Bobby Green and Abel Trujillo.
Lightweights Danny Castillo and Tony Ferguson, middleweights Derek Brunson and Lorenz Larkin, plus women’s bantamweights Shayna Baszler and Bethe Correia will now compete at UFC 177.
Two 155-pound fights — Tony Martin vs Beneil Dariush and James Vick vs Walmir Lazaro — were moved to Aug. 23’s UFC Fight Night show in Tulsa, Okla.
