June 14, 
San Jose MMA ExaminerPhil Lanides
In a shocking turn of events, and in what is being termed as a first in UFC history, a company event is being moved from one venue to another due to poor ticket sales. The August 1st UFC LIVE event, which was scheduled to take place at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, is now being moved to the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, California.
“Our television ratings in Salt Lake City have always been strong, and when we finally found the opportunity to bring a UFC event there with a great card, I was very surprised and disappointed in ticket sales. As a result, for the first time in UFC history, I decided to pull the plug and move this August 1st event to the San Diego Sports Arena,” explained UFC President Dana White in a press release today.
Never in the history of the UFC has this occurred. “It’s crazy to hear this. The UFC seems to be promotional gold…is this a sign of a budding problem?,” asked Bay Area fight fan Jake Erickson.
The UFC® LIVE fight card, featuring Jon Jones versus Vladimir Matyushenko, as the featured main event remains unchanged. Also competing will be local fighter Mark Munoz. Here’s the scheduled fight card as it stands now:
MAIN CARD
• Jon Jones vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
• Mark Munoz vs. Yushin Okami
• Jake Ellenberger vs. John Howard
• Takanori Gomi vs. Joe Stevenson
PRELIMINARY CARD
• DaMarques Johnson vs. Matthew Riddle
• James Irvin vs. Igor Pokrajac
• Paul Kelly vs. Jacob Volkmann*
• Mike Massenzio vs. Brian Stann
• Rob Kimmons vs. Steve Steinbeiss
• Willamy Freire vs. Thiago Tavares*
• Darren Elkins vs. Charles Oliveira*
*Not officially announced
