Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/12/12/ufc-drops-january-ufc-233-pay-per-view-date-in-anaheim/
The UFC will not be hosting a pay-per-view event on January 26th in Anaheim, California as the promotion was forced to move the card after failing to secure a main event for the card.
The company is not dropping the pay-per-view completely as there are still scheduled to be 12 pay-per-views in 2019, according to Brett Okamoto of ESPN.
The UFC 233 event was set for the Honda Center in Anaheim and originally headlined by Henry Cejudo defending the UFC flyweight title against T.J. Dillashaw along with the UFC debut of Ben Askren, who would be fighting Robbie Lawler. The Cejudo vs. Dillashaw fight was moved up a week to headline the UFC’s debut on the ESPN+ streaming service in Brooklyn and left Anaheim without a main event. After attempts to secure a suitable main event, the decision was made to drop the date and make it up later in 2019.
The UFC pay-per-view was scheduled to go head-to-head with Bellator 214 at The Forum in nearby Inglewood, California with Bellator getting the night to themselves now.
The ESPN report states that a flyweight fight on the Anaheim card between Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figueiredo will be moved to the January 19th card in Brooklyn and the Cynthia Calvillo vs. Cortney Casey fight is being moved to February 17th in Phoenix, Arizona.
The UFC’s first pay-per-view of the new year will be on February 10th and is still going to be advertised as UFC 234 while skipping UFC 233. The February 10th card will see Robert Whittaker defend the UFC middleweight title against Kelvin Gastelum from the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.