Yep, that’s right folks – once again the light-heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira has been pushed back in the UFC’s 2014 schedule.
Yesterday it was confirmed that Jones Vs Teixeira will now move from UFC 171 on March 15th to UFC 172 on April 12th.
At one stage UFC 172 was believed to have been targeted for the UFC’s first ever event in Mexico with Cain Velasquez headlining, but now that he’s out injured they decided to pull the plug on that plan for the time being.
Instead, Jones Vs Teixeira headlines and it’s being reported that Baltimore will now be the destination for the PPV show. So far no other fights have been announced for the card.
For those counting, this is the fourth time that this 205lb match-up has been announced and then changed.
While injuries and call-offs were responsible previously, on this occasion the reason for the switch appears to have been the announcement of fight between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler at UFC 171 for the welterweight title vacated yesterday by GSP.
Rather than have two title fights on the one show they’ve decided to keep them seperate, and unfortunately that’s likely to be the way of things in the coming year as the UFC tries to cope with a depleted line-up of stars, with GSP now out indefinitely due to personal issues, and two other current champions, Anthony Pettis and Cain Velasquez, also on the sidelines for most of the coming year due to injuries.
Coming at a time when the UFC are getting ready to ramp up their schedule from 33 events this year to well over 40 in 2014, that means they’re going to have to spread theie remaining top level talent a little more thinly than usual.
