Following the loss of BJ Penn from the main event due to an injury, the UFC has decided to cancel the October 15th UFC Fight Night 97 event.
The UFC was unable to find an opponent in time for the fight, and the event as a whole was canceled before a new main event could be found.
The government in the Philippines caused the cancelation due to unusual drug testing that would have tested all UFC employees, per Jeremy Botter. Any failure would have caused passports to be seized.
The UFC issued a statement, saying, "Athletes scheduled to compete on the Oct. 15 card will be rebooked at upcoming UFC events in the near future. Each athlete set to compete on Oct. 15 will also receive compensation due to the card being rescheduled. With its 2016 calendar finalized, UFC officials will discuss future dates for the event."
Besides the canceled Ricardo Lamas/BJ Penn fight, here are the other fights that will have to be rescheduled at a future date:
Derrick Lewis vs. Marcin Tybura
Jenel Lausa vs. Yao Zhikui
Mizuto Hirota vs. Cole Miller
Sam Alvey vs. Alex Nicholson
Jon Tuck vs. Alex Volkanovski
Ryan Janes vs. Dongi Yang
Seo Hee Ham vs. Danielle Taylor
James Moontasri vs. Alex Morono
Ali Bagautinov vs. Kyoji Horiguchi
The last time a UFC card was canceled was all the way back at UFC 151 on September 1, 2012 after Dan Henderson suffered an injury, and then-UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones refused to take a fight on 8 days notice.
