Ben Askren vs. Robbie Lawler fight rescheduled for March

After a long struggle to find a suitable main event for UFC 233, which was scheduled for January 26 in Anaheim, the promotion has decided to cancel the card outright. The bouts that were scheduled for this event, including a high profile welterweight bout between former UFC champ Robbie Lawler and former ONE and Bellator champ Ben Askren, will be rescheduled for future cards.

It did not take long for the UFC to find a new for this Lawler vs. Askren fight.

On Thursday afternoon, the promotion announced on Twitter that this high-stakes contender bout will now occur at UFC 235, which is scheduled for March 2 inside Las Vegas, Nevada’s T-Mobile Arena.

https://twitter.com/UFCEspanol/status/1073277643091574784

This rescheduled bout will serve as the UFC of Ben Askren (18-0). He last fought in November of 2017, when he scored a TKO win over Shinya Aoki in a superfight that was supposed to serve as the last bout of his career. With this win, he improved to 6-0 in ONE Championship, building on a legendary run as Bellator’s welterweight champion. Over the course of his career, he’s defeated names like Aoki, Zebaztian Kadestam, Andrey Koreshkov, Douglas Lima, Jay Hieron and Lyman Good.

Robbie Lawler (28-12), meanwhile, has not fought since December of 2017, when he gave up a decision to former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. This victory was preceded by an exciting decision defeat of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, and a knockout loss to Tyron Woodley, which signalled the end of his reign as UFC welterweight king. Lawler defended the welterweight title two times, in Fight of the Year contenders with Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit.

UFC 235 is also expected to feature another huge welterweight contender fight, as Nick Diaz is scheduled to fight Jorge Masvidal.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/13/2018.