That clears that up.
UFC 196 [before it became the March 5 event headlined by Conor McGregor and Rafael dos Anjos] was supposed to be on February 6 in Las Vegas. Artem Lobov was supposed to be fighting on its undercard.
That event is now Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson and will be aired on FOX Sports 1 [free TV] next Saturday night. Johnny Hendricks and Stephen Thompson will go at it in a much-anticipated welterweight bout.
The event was stood down from its UFC 196 status after heavyweight headliners Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum pulled out of their title bout with injuries.
Stipe Miocic had replaced Velasquez in the main event only for Werdum, the champion, to step in.
Asked about the withdrawals on Twitter, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones offered to fight Miocic but only if it was for the heavyweight strap and not an interim title.
The fight never happened and Miocic was forced to defend himself from claims he turned down a tilt at Jones. Many assumed that the who;e story was based on Jones’ tweet but UFC president Dana White told the Opie and Jim Newton radio show that Jones really wanted the fight. He said:
“When this fight [was] pulled out, Jon Jones said, ‘Hey, how about me and Stipe fight for the interim heavyweight title?’
“I just said, ‘Ah let’s wait for you and Daniel Cormier’. Him and Cormier are going to fight later on this year.”
