The fans were still filing out of London’s O2 Arena after Alexander Gustafsson’s TKO of Jimi Manuwa back on March 8 when the UFC announced it’s next date in the city: Feb. 28, 2015.
Of course, Feb. 28 is now the landing date for UFC 184 in Los Angeles, with the double bill of Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort and Ronda Rousey vs. Cat Zingano atop the bill.
Since the LA date was announced, U.K. fans have been asking what this means for the planned event in London. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, UFC chief global brand office Garry Cook said the Feb. 28 date in London is off, but the company is still looking to return to the market sometime over the course of 2015.
“We’re going to move ourselves to another London date further down in the year,” Cook said. “So we had to make some changes, and as we always say with our business, it is subject to change, that’s just making sure the fans are taken care of, we don’t want to overdo it and make sure we get focused on that L.A. event at UFC 184 in Los Angeles.
Instead, the UFC’s tentpole European event for the early portion of the year is Gustafsson vs. Anthony Johnson in Stockholm, Sweden, an event which is expected to draw up to 30,000 fans.
“It’s very important for Alexander Gustafsson, we wanted to place that one into that market, and we also have the LA show with Ronda on that card and with Belfort and Weidman on that card, and so to make some adjustments, we’re going to take ourselves out of that London date, and we’re going to move ourselves to another London date further down in the year.”