The UFC has elected to postpone a UFC 233 pay-per-view event scheduled on Jan. 26 in Anaheim, California, the UFC announced Wednesday.
The PPV event is being moved to another date due to a combination of factors, sources told ESPN, and will be rebooked to a later date, meaning 2019 will still feature 12 PPVs as planned. It has not yet been determined whether Anaheim will host that PPV once it is rebooked.
UFC 234, which is scheduled for Feb. 10 in Melbourne, Australia, will continue to carry the UFC 234 title.
A flyweight title fight between Henry Cejudo (13-2) and TJ Dillashaw (16-3) originally was supposed to headline UFC 233, but the promotion moved that to a UFC Fight Night card on ESPN+ on Jan. 19 in Brooklyn, New York. That event is the first for a five-year, $1.5 billion deal between the UFC and ESPN.
The decision to move Cejudo and Dillashaw, paired with several key injuries, are the main reasons behind this move. The UFC wanted welterweight champion Tyron Woodley to headline UFC 233 against Colby Covington, but Woodley is still recovering from a thumb injury suffered in his last title defense in September.
The promotion already had announced several other bouts for UFC 233. Those matchups are expected to be reworked to other events.
A flyweight bout between Joseph Benavidez (26-5) and Deiveson Figueiredo (15-0) will move to the ESPN+ event on Jan. 19 in Brooklyn, sources told ESPN. The move is not yet official, but that is the current plan.
Welterweight Ben Askren was scheduled to make his UFC debut against Robbie Lawler on the Anaheim card.
"I was ready and willing to save the day for my new bosses. Heck, I'm ready to fight tomorrow," Askren said in a text to ESPN's Ariel Helwani. "If Robbie needs a little more time get ready to lose to me, so be it. Though I'd be more than happy to fight in Brooklyn and then kick his ass on March 2."
The Cynthia Calvillo-Cortney Casey fight has been moved to Feb. 17 in Phoenix, sources told ESPN.
