Leon Edwards withdraws from new UFC London card as numerous fighters pulled from event

UFC welterweight contender Leon Edwards has withdrawn from the new UFC London card, and numerous other fighters have been pulled from the event.

The coronavirus outbreak has led to the majority of sporting events in the world being canceled, but the UFC remains the lone outlier. After hosting UFC Brasilia without a crowd on Saturday, the promotion still plans on holding the UFC London card next Saturday. The UFC is currently in plans to relocate the London card to somewhere in the United States, leaving fighters like Edwards on the out looking in due to the UK travel ban.

Now Edwards has been forced to withdraw from the event and his main event fight against Tyron Woodley has been officially scrapped, according to numerous sites including MMAFighting.com.

The UFC on Sunday sent an email to MMA managers asking them if they had any fighters who would be willing to fight on short notice, or if anyone wanted to sign with the UFC for a short-notice fight this weekend at the relocated UFC London event. Now that Edwards has withdrawn and there is no main event, the event could be canceled.

According to Jim Edwards, nearly every fight for the card has now been scratched.

Aspinall x Collier ❌off https://t.co/GALMz5P4nK

— Jim (@MMA_Jim) March 15, 2020

There are only a few fights that remain on the card as of now. The problem is a majority of the fighters who were scheduled to compete on the card, including Edwards, are Europeans, so the travel ban will affect them. At this point, the UFC can only have fighters with U.S. citizenship fight on the card. While the new UFC London card has not been officially scrapped just yet, it seems like it might ultimately come to that.

What do you think the UFC should do with Leon Edwards and the other fighters who were scheduled to compete at UFC London?