UFC 176 Fight & Latest News: Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes Title Fight is Off, Entire Fight Card Cancelled
The UFC announced that the scheduled UFC 176 pay-per-view match between Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes on Aug. 2 in Los Angeles will not push through after the reigning featherweight champion decided to withdraw from the bout.
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta revealed that Aldo sustained a neck and shoulder injury that would keep him out of MMA-related activities for the next three weeks.
"Jose Aldo's injury is a neck/shoulder injury, which, he said he's not going to be able to train for only three weeks," Fertitta said in an interview with Fox Sports 1 via MMA Fighting. "So it was a situation where certainly he wouldn't be ready for August 2nd."
Fertitta quickly added that Aldo's injury will not put him on the sidelines for more than a month, saying that the UFC featherweight title showdown could be rescheduled in October.
"I think [Aldo-Mendes] will be in October, but we're not going to know probably for about two weeks what the status of Jose is," Fertitta said via Yahoo Sports. "Basically, doctors told him no contact and no training for three weeks, and we're one week into that. We'll regroup in a couple of weeks and we'll have some news at that point."
With the postponement of Aldo's title defense against Mendes, UFC also announced that the entire UFC 176 fight card is off after failing to arrange a title fight that would headline the event.
"In addition to that, obviously on pay-per-view events there's typically a championship bout on the card, and quite frankly right now there's nobody that could turn around quick enough to be able to fill the August 2nd slot," Fertitta added.
According to reports, UFC tried to arrange a new fight card that would be headlined by Ronda Rousey, but the reigning female bantamweight champion sustained injuries during her successful title defense against Alexis Davis last weekend.
UFC 176 will be the second fight card to be cancelled after UFC 151, which was also called off in 2012 after Dan Henderson sustained an injury before his scheduled title fight against Jon Jones.
Fertitta also told Yahoo Sports that there will be no UFC 176 and that the upcoming rematch between Renan Barao and T.J. Dillashaw on August 30 will still be known as UFC 177.
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