There will be no history-making title defense for flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson on Saturday.
MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reported that Ray Borg has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 215 main event vs. Johnson. According to the report, “Borg has been battling an illness this week and was deemed unfit to fight by UFC doctors.” While details on his illness are unknown, it should be noted that Borg has had a history of weight-cutting issues, having failed to make weight in two of his last four fights. Borg also withdrew from his UFC 203 bout vs. Ian McCall after falling ill.
Currently, it looks as if the UFC is going to reschedule this matchup for another event. Johnson was looking for his 11th successful title defense, which would be an all-time UFC record, surpassing the 10 made by former middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
The new UFC 215 headliner will be the women’s bantamweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, a fight which was ironically rescheduled from UFC 213 after Nunes had withdrawn on the day of the event due to illness. So much for her never headlining another UFC card, as Dana White had once stated.
UFC 215 takes place at the Rogers Arena in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
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