UFC scraps August pay-per-view event

The UFC never really officially announced an August pay-per-view event, set to be UFC 215. And now it’s gone for good.

In a statement posted to UFC.com on Monday, the UFC said that the “originally planned” August PPV has been “removed from the schedule.” UFC 215 will now be Sept. 9 in Edmonton, an event that was initially dubbed UFC 216. A headliner for that card has not yet been announced.

There were rumblings that the Aug. 18 card would have been in Seattle and headlined by Demetrious Johnson’s potentially record-breaking title defense, against either T.J. Dillashaw or Ray Borg. ESPN reported last week that Dillashaw is no longer focused on going down to flyweight and concentrating now on a future bantamweight title fight with Cody Garbrandt.

The cancellation of the August event comes as little surprise, since the boxing match between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. was announced for just one week later, on Aug. 26, earlier this month.

The UFC is not an official promoter of Mayweather vs. McGregor, but is assisting in the marketing, including a UFC Embedded that will run that week. McGregor is, of course, the UFC lightweight champion making his pro boxing debut against the 49-0 Mayweather.

Earlier this year, the UFC cancelled a scheduled pay-per-view in January that was set to take place in Anaheim, Calif., and moved it to July 29. That is now UFC 214, headlined by Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title.