UFC Fight Night 97: Lamas vs. Penn

This is the official discussion thread for UFC Fight Night 97.

The event starts on Saturday, October 15 at 10:00am ET

Predictions lock -240 minutes before the event start time

Enjoy the fights!

The start time for this event has been changed.

Old Time: Saturday, October 15 at 10:00am ET

New Time: Saturday, October 15 at 6:45am ET

The prediction deadline for this event has been changed.

Old Lock: -240 minutes before the event start time

New Lock: 0 minutes before the event start time

Predictions now lock on Saturday, October 15 at 6:45am ET.

Looks like Baghdad is no longer fighting Jon Tuck.

Tuck vs Alex Volkanovski looks like the new fight replacement

Event has been cancelled. 

How do you know about cancelation of this event??? That would be so unfair for other fighers

http://mmajunkie.com/2016/10/after-b-j-penns-withdrawal-ufc-cancels-next-weeks-ufc-fight-night-97-event-in-philippines

Honestly, they could have easily just bumped Lewis/Tybura to the main event and that would have been smoother than canceling the whole card and trying to reschedule everyone. It would be a relatively mediocre Fight Night, yes, but still doable in the grand scheme of things. 

It's not like this is a big card like UFC 200...it's a fight night in the Philippines. The card still has Alvey/Nicholson Ham/Taylor, Miller/Hirota and Moontasri/Morono...should have just kept the card. 

At the very least, they're compensating the fighters and re-booking them. I just hope some of the match-ups remain the same...I was looking forward to Alvey smashing Nicholson and the return of The Black Beast.

The RDA vs. Ferguson and Kim vs. Nelson fight nights all could use another two fights at least, and Bader vs. Nogueira could squeeze in one more.  

and don't believe the BJ tale, this show was cancelled to avoid setting foot in the Philippines, whose government is really mad at the USA and Americans and has been killing people at will lately.

Jeremy Botter ‏@jeremybotter  4 h

As first reported by @TalkMMA, the Philippines government essentially forced this card cancelation with crazy drug testing issues.

Jeremy Botter ‏@jeremybotter  4 h

The government was going to drug test ALL UFC folks - not just fighters, but staff/production/etc.

Duterte is no joke.

I hope the MMA gods are happy with our sacrifice for 205

@Joking Joe Thank you for clearing that up. I guess my earlier post could essentially be rescinded since it's not the UFC's fault they made that decision.....damn. 

@mikeyg

Yeah you'd think, but every now and again UFC's gonna UFC.

I think BJ being injured is just a pretext to cancel the card. The real issue is the Filipino government.

Yup, apparently the Filipino government wanted to test ALL of the UFC's employees (even the guys setting up the cage) for recreational drugs so instead of finding themselves dealing with potentially 50-100 cases of "drug abuse" with the government they said **** the whole card, no UFC for you, one year.

It's a good call, imo. Just too much potential post-event paperwork and lawyer fees. The UFC like to spend, put on a show, collect the cash and onto the next. When you're bringing in tens to hundreds of employees that are legally under your responsibility, you don't want to be held accountable for each and every one of them to that extent.

@yossgold  Huh, I had no idea about that.  That sucks.

I mentioned Lamas vs Bektic would make for a far better fight than both of their previous scheduled bouts and Bektic is a beast and Lamas would be a perfect step up in competition, although I'm okay with them not rushing him too much.

But as mentioned the cancellation wasn't just BJ Penn's injury. It is more so Rodrido Dutere, the Filipino President and his ways. This has been an ongoing issue since July that I know of. With that said, wonder why they proceeded to try an event there with this being an ongoing issue? 

Interesting about the testing. I guess they will never be in the Phillipines while he is in charge.