Breaking: Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg UFC 215 Main Event Cancelled
It looks like UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson’s record-breaking title defense will have to wait just a bit longer.
Johnson was set to make what would be a record-breaking 11th consecutive title defense (if successful) against No. 3-ranked Ray Borg in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat. September 9, 2017) UFC 215 pay-per-view (PPV). “Mighty Mouse” is undefeated in mixed martial arts (MMA) competition when competing at 125 pounds, not having lost in 12-straight fights since going to a draw with Ian McCall back in 2012.
Borg has won two-straight in his MMA career, but has showed struggles making the 125-pound weight limit after having missed weight twice. In his career Borg has lost two bouts total, a unanimous decision to Justin Scoggins and a split decision to Dustin Ortiz.
MMA fans were interested in seeing if Borg could pull off the seemingly impossible, and best “Mighty Mouse” in 125-pound competition, putting an end to his title reign and crushing all hopes of breaking Anderson Silva‘s 10 consecutive title defense record. Those fans will have to wait, however, as MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reports that the fight has now been called off due to Borg being forced to pull out citing an illness.
The report suggests that Borg has been battling the illness all week and has been deemed unfit to compete by UFC doctors. His illness was also unrelated to his weight cut despite “The Tazmexican Devil’s” history with weight-cutting issues. Borg’s nutritionist, Dr. Michelle Ingels of Perfecting Athletes, had this to say:
“It wasn’t weight related,” Ingels said. “Ray has been getting progressively more sick each day this week and still wanted to fight so badly that he put on a game face and went to all of his fight week obligations.
“However, prior to beginning the bulk of his weight cut the UFC doctor examined Borg and concluded that he was too ill to fight this week and needed time to rest and get better.”
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes‘ title defense against Valentina Shevchenko has been promoted to the UFC 215 main event. Johnson vs. Borg is likely to be rescheduled for UFC 216 in Las Vegas next month (Sat. October 7, 2017).
