UFC 233 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
Date | January 26, 2019 (cancelled) | |||
Venue | Honda Center | |||
City | Anaheim, California | |||
Event chronology | ||||
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UFC 233 was a planned mixed martial arts event that was rescheduled to be held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on January 26, 2019 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. [1] [2] The promotion initially announced on December 12, 2018 that the event had been "postponed" and would be rescheduled for a later date. However, the event was ultimately cancelled. [3] [4]
Initially, the promotion was planning a UFC Flyweight Championship bout between 2008 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling Henry Cejudo and two-time UFC Bantamweight Champion T.J. Dillashaw to headline this event. [5] [6] If successful, Dillashaw would have become the fourth fighter to be champion in two divisions simultaneously (after Conor McGregor at UFC 205, Daniel Cormier at UFC 226 and Amanda Nunes at UFC 232). According to sources, the promotion was expected to dissolve the flyweight division at some point within 2019. [7] However, on December 5, the pairing was moved and took place a week earlier at UFC Fight Night 143, headlining the promotion's inaugural event on ESPN+. In turn, promotion officials tried to arrange a new pairing to anchor the event. [8]
However, the promotion announced plans in mid-December to postpone the event after they determined that they could not arrange a suitable headlining bout. [3] All previously scheduled fights for this event are expected to remain intact and be rescheduled for other events, with the numbered events still maintaining their original titles. [9] This was the fourth time, following UFC 151 in August 2012, UFC 176 in August 2014 and UFC Fight Night: Lamas vs. Penn in October 2016, that the promotion was forced to cancel an event because of a lack of a high profile fight to fill a main event spot. [9]
A lightweight bout between James Vick and Paul Felder was initially scheduled to take place in July 2018 at UFC Fight Night: dos Santos vs. Ivanov. However, Vick was pulled from that bout in late June to act as a replacement against former WSOF Lightweight Champion Justin Gaethje at UFC Fight Night: Gaethje vs. Vick and the bout was scrapped. [10] The pairing was rescheduled for this event. [11]
Islam Makhachev was expected to face Francisco Trinaldo at the event. However, on November 11, 2018 it was reported that Makhachev pulled out from the fight for an undisclosed reason and he was replaced by Alexander Hernandez. [12] In turn, Hernandez was pulled from that fight in favor of a bout with UFC Lightweight Championship challenger Donald Cerrone a week earlier at UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs. Dillashaw. [13]
A women's flyweight bout between KSW Women's Flyweight Champion and promotional newcomer Ariane Lipski and Joanne Calderwood was initially scheduled for the event. [14] However, it was reported on December 2 that the bout had been rescheduled for the first event on ESPN+ instead. [15]
A bantamweight bout between former WEC and two-time UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz and John Lineker was scheduled for the event. However, on December 11, it was announced that Cruz suffered from a shoulder injury and pulled from the event. [16] As a result of the cancellation of UFC 233, Lineker was scheduled to face Cory Sandhagen at UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs. Dillashaw. [17]
Main Card | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
Welterweight | Robbie Lawler | vs. | Ben Askren | [lower-alpha 1] | |||
Flyweight | Joseph Benavidez | vs. | Deiveson Figueiredo | [lower-alpha 2] | |||
Women's Strawweight | Cortney Casey | vs. | Cynthia Calvillo | [lower-alpha 3] | |||
Lightweight | James Vick | vs. | Paul Felder | [lower-alpha 4] | |||
Women's Strawweight | Aleksandra Albu | vs. | Emily Whitmire | [lower-alpha 5] | |||
Middleweight | Markus Perez | vs. | Anthony Hernandez | [lower-alpha 6] | |||
Women's Bantamweight | Marion Reneau | vs. | Yana Kunitskaya | [lower-alpha 7] | |||
Featherweight | Kron Gracie | vs. | Alex Caceres | [lower-alpha 8] | |||
Bantamweight | Manny Bermudez | vs. | Benito Lopez | [lower-alpha 9] |
Henry Carlos Cejudo is an American professional mixed martial artist and former freestyle wrestler. He currently competes in the Bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Flyweight Champion and Bantamweight Champion. Cejudo is the fourth UFC fighter to hold titles in two different weight classes simultaneously, and the second to defend titles in two different weight divisions. He is considered to be among the greatest combat athletes of all time due to his accomplishments in MMA and freestyle wrestling.
Tyler Jeffrey Dillashaw is an American former professional mixed martial artist who competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former two-time UFC Bantamweight Champion.
John Lineker is a Brazilian Muay Thai kickboxer and former mixed martial artist currently signed to ONE Championship, where he is the former ONE Bantamweight MMA World Champion. Lineker formerly competed in the bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A professional competitor since 2008, he is the former Jungle Fight bantamweight champion. Lineker is known for his aggressive fighting style, punching power, and durability. As of March 6, 2023, he is ranked #1 in the ONE Bantamweight rankings.
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