Shortly after we published our UFC Vegas 15 main event preview, news broke that the fight is off. Per ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Curtis Blaydes (14-2, 1 NC) has tested positive for COVID-19 and the main event tomorrow has been cancelled.
Blaydes was scheduled to fight The Black Beast, Derrick Lewis (24-7, 1 NC). The fight was a huge fight for the UFC‘s heavyweight division as both men were entering the cage on multiple fight winning streaks.
In addition to that, both men were currently inside the UFC‘s top four. The winner was expected to be on the shortlist of contenders for a future title shot. However, we now know that we will have to wait on this one.
What is the UFC’s plan?
According to Helwani’s tweet, the UFC is currently working on booking this fight for sometime in December. To me, it makes all the sense in the world to book this fight on the main card of the UFC 256 PPV.
That card has taken a lot of hits including losing three title fights. The card’s main event features a flyweight title fight. In addition, Tony Ferguson returns as he takes on Charles Oliveira.
However, the card could use just a little more juice. Considering the UFC‘s December 19th card is already stacked, the December 12th card makes all the sense in the world. This is a crushing blow to the UFC Vegas 15 card.
The promotion will now move forward with Anthony Smith – Devin Clark as the main event of the evening. While that is expected to be a decent fight, in my opinion, it wasn’t even worth being a co-main event.
The UFC was going to struggle tomorrow taking on the Tyson – Jones Jr boxing main event, and now they just lost their heavyweight clash. Tough break for the promotion, but we will just have to see how this plays out.