TBD Vs. TBD

We’re five days away from the next UFC event on ESPN and no new main event or replacement opponent for Donald Cerrone has been announced.

We’re less than a week out from UFC Vegas 26 on May 8th, aka UFC on ESPN 24. And yet we still do not have a main event. We barely have an official card!

As it’s currently labeled on UFC.com, UFC on ESPN: TBA vs. TBA is what happens when a great card gets hit with the ol’ MMA gypsy curse. Originally set to be headlined by Corey Sandhagen vs. T.J. Dillashaw, that main event went out the window when Dillashaw split his eyebrow open last week.

Then an exciting main card bout between Diego Sanchez and Donald Cerrone also fell apart due to… well, it’s complicated but if you have the time to read five articles and watch 30 minutes of video to understand, you can. Cerrone will now face Alex Morono.

Also off the card: Holly Holm vs. Julianna Pena (due to Holm suffering from Hydronephrosis). Roxanne Modafferi vs. Taila Santos (due to Modafferi tearing her miniscus). Exciting prospect Jimmy Flick just decided to retire out of the blue. Deiveson Figueiredo’s brother Francisco got moved to another card. It’s just one of those unfortunate events that started out wicked awesome but is now limping across the finish line.

So now here’s where we are: the new main event is “The Karate Hottie” Michelle Waterson vs. Marina Rodriguez… maybe. According to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, there’s some ‘logistical issue’ with Rodriguez calling this into question.

From there things only get stranger: for some reason, only one other fight is listed for this event on the UFC’s website: a middleweight bout between Jun Yong Park vs. Tafon Nchukwi.

Now to be clear: there’s 12 bouts currently signed and ready for this card and 1 bout currently seeking replacement opponents. They’re just not listed anywhere 5 days before the event for some reason. It’s all just a bit odd. The UFC is no stranger to running events at a breakneck speed and dealing with last second issues. We’re just not used to stuff taking this long to sort out.

Here’s the bouts we know about right now:

Michelle Waterson vs Marina Rodriguez
Donald Cerrone vs. Alex Morono
Neil Magny vs. Geoff Neal
Carlos Diego Ferreira vs. Gregor Gillespie
Angela Hill vs. Amanda Ribas
Phil Hawes vs. Kyle Daukaus
Ben Rothwell vs. Philipe Lins
Maurice Greene vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Zarrukh Adashev vs. Ryan Benoit
Christian Aguilera vs. Carlston Harris
Taila Santos vs. TBD