Tyron Woodley vs. Leon Edwards canceled amid UFC on ESPN+ 29 revamp

UFC on ESPN+ 29 was supposed to take place Saturday in London, but wasn’t permitted to happen due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. The United Kingdom disallowed large gatherings, so the UFC announced it would move the card Stateside.

And while there is no update pertaining to whether or not the card still will happen, it won’t have its original main event. Tyron Woodley vs. Leon Edwards won’t be happening after all – at least not Saturday.

Sunday, Edwards (18-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) announced his fight with Woodley (19-4-1 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC) was off the card. He called the cancellation “truly heartbreaking.” ESPN was first to announce the cancellation.

Numerous other fighters have announced cancellations and potential re-bookings.

Woodley most recently competed at UFC 235 in March 2019, when he dropped the 170-pound title to Kamaru Usman. The defeat ended a reign of four successful defenses for “The Chosen One,” who has been holding out for a big fight since then.

Despite claiming he wouldn’t go overseas to fight, Woodley agreed to fight Edwards, who is currently riding an eight-fight winning streak dating back to a unanimous decision loss of his own to Usman in December 2015.

After beating Rafael dos Anjos at UFC on ESPN 4 this past June, the Brit would’ve attempted to take out his second former UFC champ in a row when he was supposed to meet Woodley on home soil.

Check out Edwards’ post below:

View this post on Instagram

Last night I went to sleep still with some hope that UFC London would continue next week.  I woke up this morning to the news that it won’t be.  We have been working with the UFC on possible solutions to keep the fight alive, but unfortunately with such a short window of time, nothing was viable.  Myself and my team are all fathers, husbands, sons and brothers, and not all of us can leave our families right now.  I wish we could have found a way for the fans, I truly do. I have been dreaming of headlining a UFC show in my home country since I started this sport.  This cancellation is truly heartbreaking.  I have never worked harder and never been more prepared for the biggest moment in my career.  But I know that the whole world is hurting right now and this is bigger than me, this is bigger than sports.  All I can hope for is  that all of you stay safe and look after each other as we get past this and move forward. I am humbled by the thousands of messages of support I have received in the hours since the announcement, I truly appreciate you all and feel a lot of love right now.  I look forward to this event being rebooked when it is safe to do so, so Tyron and I can put on the show that you all deserve. Please take care, we will all get through is. Rocky

A post shared by Leon “Rocky” Edwards (@leon_edwardsmma) on Mar 15, 2020 at 11:27am PDT

UFC on ESPN+ 29 was scheduled to take place Saturday at The O2 in London. The card was expected to stream on ESPN+. The UFC is hoping to salvage it somehow, but no definitive plans have been announced.