UFC 177 has literally imploded in the span of the last several hours. Already considered one of the UFC’s worst pay-per-view offerings in company history, the event lost the debut of Olympic Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo earlier today, and just moments ago lost their main event.
Former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao was forced to withdraw from the main event title rematch against TJ Dillashaw due to issues during his weight cut.
BREAKING: Renan Barão is out of UFC 177 fight with T.J. Dillashaw tomorrow night for “health and safety” reasons. (via @bokamotoESPN)
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 29, 2014
.@RenanBaraoUFC out of #UFC177. Stepping in to fight @TJDillashaw is Joe Soto for the UFC bantamweight title!
— UFC (@ufc) August 29, 2014
You read those tweets correctly. Instead of scrapping the UFC 177 event, the UFC has decided to promote Joe Soto into the main event title fight in his UFC debut. Soto was initially scheduled to face Anthony Birchak on the Fox Sports 1 preliminary card.
So who is Joe Soto? Well, 22 days ago Soto was fighting for Tachi Palace Fights as the bantamweight champion. After his last win he was signed by the UFC thanks in part to a six fight winning streak including five finishes.
Soto was also the first ever Bellator featherweight champion when he won the first featherweight tournament at Bellator 10 in 2009. He will obviously have a tough task tomorrow in Dillashaw, but this is an opportunity that has never before been seen in UFC history.
