UFC Fight Night 97 canceled following B.J. Penn's withdrawal from the card

The UFC has canceled their upcoming event in Manila. The news was announced by the promotion on Thursday.

This event was labeled as UFC Fight Night 97, and it was supposed to take place on Oct. 15 in Manila, Philippines. MMA legend B.J. Penn was scheduled to make his return to competition, facing top featherweight Ricardo Lamas in the main event of the card.

However, Penn pulled out of the fight on Wednesday citing a rib injury. The UFC failed to find a replacement opponent for Lamas, which subsequently caused the cancellation for the event.

The fighters set to compete on the card will be rebooked for upcoming UFC events, and they will receive compensation due to the cancellation of card, according to the UFC.

With the 2016 calendar already finalized with UFC events, the promotion will look to book an event in Manila sometime next year. Fans that purchased tickets can seek refund at the point of purchase. MMA Fighting learned that ticket sales were low, somewhere between 3,000 to 4,000.

The UFC Fight Night 97 card prior to cancellation went as follows:

Main card:

• Ricardo Lamas vs. TBD
• Derrick Lewis vs. Marcin Tybura
• Jenel Lausa vs. Yao Zhikui
• Mizuto Hirota vs. Cole Miller

Preliminary card:

• 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