UFC 196

UFC 196: McGregor vs. Diaz was a mixed martial arts event held on March 5, 2016, at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Background

The event was officially announced in November 2015 as "UFC 197", taking place on March 5, 2016, at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Weeks later on December 29, UFC announced that the event was canceled and would be moved to a different location. On January 12, it was confirmed the event would take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

On January 13, UFC revealed this event was originally intended to take place at Arena da Baixada (a much larger venue) in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, and feature a UFC Heavyweight Championship rematch between champion Fabrício Werdum and former two-time champion Cain Velasquez, with former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva in the co-main event slot, possibly against Michael Bisping. Due to a series of injuries, the company moved the heavyweight bout to a separate event scheduled for February 6, which at that time was titled "UFC 196". This change made the March 5 event a smaller draw, which led to the transition to the smaller venue in Rio de Janeiro. To maintain local interest, the company then considered booking the main event as a rematch between two Brazilian fighters, Silva and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort. Belfort declined the bout, as he wished to wait for the result of the middleweight title fight at UFC 194. This final fall-through is what prompted the cancellation of the event in Brazil and relocation to Las Vegas. On January 27, it was revealed the Werdum-Velasquez bout (which had been moved to "UFC 196" scheduled for February 6, 2016) was cancelled entirely. This forced that event to alter into a "UFC Fight Night" card, and the originally scheduled "UFC 197" event was renamed UFC 196.