Dana White would be forgiven for wistfully wishing he was back in the boxing game.
Late on Thursday night [MTZ – Mountain Time Zone] and less than 48 hours out from UFC 215, flyweight title contender Ray Borg was forced to withdraw from the main event.
Borg was set to face off against flyweight kingpin, and newly returned UFC pound-for-pound No.1, Demetrious Johnson at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada.
With the UFC dropping any pay-per-view events in August due to the Mayweather vs. McGregor boxing match, the publicity drive for 215 was well underway. Indeed, less than two hours after UFC president Dana White excitedly tweeted out the latest ‘Embedded’ episode, the bad news arrived.
A UFC statement reads:
‘Due to a viral illness to UFC flyweight contender Ray Borg, the main event bout against champion Demetrious Johnson at UFC 215 has been cancelled. Borg was deemed unfit to compete by the UFC medical team.
‘UFC 215, which is now headlined by the women’s bantamweight championship between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, will proceed as scheduled with 11 bouts at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada. Moving to the Pay-Per-View main card will be the flyweight bout between Henry Cejudo and Wilson Reis.
‘Additionally, the Mitch Clarke and Alex White lightweight contest will now kick off the FS1 prelims.
‘With the removal of Johnson vs. Borg, customers may request a full refund of purchased tickets at point of sale.’
This is not the first time Canadian MMA fans have been left disappointed with the late cancellation of a main event fight. In November of last year, then light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was forced to withdraw from his fight with Anthony Johnson at UFC 206 [scheduled for December 10].
Interestingly, Nunes is now main-eventing a PPV a little less than two months after White declared she would never do so again.
