The UFC’s grand plans to break their attendance record this year were thrown into disarray on Friday night.
November’s UFC 193 main event was expected to feature Robbie Lawler’s welterweight title defence against former interim champion Carlos Condit.
But a thumb injury has forced Ruthless out of the Melbourne event and with title fights on different cards in place for pretty much all other champions, there would have been some concern among Dana White and Co.
Rousey vs Holm is main event at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. We'll break all-time attendance record for an MMA event. pic.twitter.com/i6p6hlQ2Ki
— danawhite (@danawhite) August 29, 2015
Then up stepped Ronda Rousey whose January 2 bout against Holly Holm has been brought forward two months to somewhat save the day in Australia.
Rather than defend her bantamweight title in Vegas, now Rowdy will headline UFC 193 in the 90,000-seat Eithad Stadium against former professional boxer Holm.
UFC president Dana White revealed that Rousey jumped at the chance to help the promotion out in their time of need.
“I swear on my life, I called her today when I thought something might happen and I said to her, ‘Hypothetically speaking, … ‘” White said. “She interrupts me and said, ‘I’ll do whatever you need me to do.’ So I laugh and I’m telling her how much I love that attitude and I’m going on and she stops me again and says, ‘Hey, so what is up? What do you need?’ She’s incredible. In 15 years of doing this, I’ve never seen anyone remotely like this woman.”
It’s not yet known whether Lawler v Condit will replace Rousey v Holm as the main event of UFC 195 but rejigging UFC 193 was Dana White’s main focus as he took to ESPN’s SportsCentre to break the news overnight.
“I just have to rethink all of this,” White said. “There are a lot of ways we can go, but we’ll make this a kick-ass event and we’ll get back at it and figure out [UFC 195] and do the same thing with that.”
