UFC 209

UFC 209: Woodley vs. Thompson 2 was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship held on March 4, 2017, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

Background

The event was originally scheduled to take place on February 11 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. However, due to a lack of suitable headliners for the original UFC 208 (scheduled for Anaheim, California), that event was postponed to July 29 and an originally scheduled UFC 209 to be held in Brooklyn was renamed as the new UFC 208. Therefore, this event was also renamed from UFC 210 to UFC 209. This was the fourth UFC event held in the venue.

A number of fans, including longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan, had expressed hope that UFC 209 would feature Nick and/or Nate Diaz on the card or be held in or near their hometown of Stockton, California. 209 is the telephone area code for Stockton: the brothers have long expressed pride in being from "the 209", and Nate Diaz had even once yelled "209! 209!" at Clay Guida during their fight as trash talk. Rogan even went so far as to say that a Diaz-based UFC 209 could break the company's pay-per-view buy record. Ultimately, the UFC could not come to financial terms with either Diaz brother, and the Stockton Arena was deemed too small for a major pay-per-view event.

A UFC Welterweight Championship rematch between current champion Tyron Woodley and five-time kickboxing world champion Stephen Thompson headlined this event. The pairing met recently at UFC 205, as Woodley retained his title after the fight ended in a majority draw.