Not too long ago, UFC President Dana White stated that women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes would not be headlining any more UFC cards. Now, due to an illness to flyweight title challenger Ray Borg, he’s eating a healthy portion of crow. That’s because the original UFC 215 main event of Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Borg for the flyweight championship has been cancelled. UFC doctors would not clear Borg to fight as the athlete has been battling a viral infection. The event takes place Saturday in Edmonton, Canada.
The UFC released a statement early Friday addressing the cancellation of the bout.
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.
Johnson had been looking to break Anderson Silva’s title defense streak. He and Silva are currently tied at ten defenses each. The Borg fight did not come about without its share of controversy, as Johnson publicly slammed the promotion for trying to force him into a bout with former bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw. Among Johnson’s concerns was the possibility that Dillashaw would miss weight, and the fight potentially be scrapped. Now, the fight has been lost anyway — albeit not due to a weight cutting issue.
In the meantime, the second fight between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko is bumped up to headline the card. The pair, who first met prior to Nunes becoming the women’s bantamweight champion, were originally scheduled to headline UFC 213. However, Nunes pulled out last minute due to what was later determined to be a case of sinusitis. That drew the wrath of White, who was upset that the champion pulled out as a result of the illness despite being cleared to fight.
The loss of Johnson vs. Borg represents the second major blow to the UFC 215 card in recent weeks, as a planned heavyweight fight between Francis Ngannou and Junior dos Santos was scrapped after Dos Santos ran afoul of USADA.
