UFC moves Versus card from Salt Lake City to San Diego

UFC keeps making history each week and each month, it seems, and Monday, July 14, 2010 was no different.

For the first time in the promotion's history, the UFC changed the city and venue of a fight because of poor ticket sales.

UFC Live on Versus 2, featuring light heavyweight rising star Jon Jones against Vladimir Matyushenko in the main event on Aug. 1, shifted from Salt Lake City, Utah, to San Diego, Calif.

“Our television ratings in Salt Lake City have always been strong, and when we finally found the opportunity to bring a UFC event there with a great card, I was very surprised and disappointed in ticket sales," UFC president Dana White said in a statement. "As a result, for the first time in UFC history, I decided to pull the plug and move this August 1st event to the San Diego Sports Arena."

Maybe it's just the wrong time of the year in Salt Lake. Maybe a free card to be televised on Versus instead of on pay-per-view didn't excite the Salt Lakers as much. Maybe the economy made a difference. Maybe the UFC has finally hit its saturation point.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Or maybe not.

Whatever it was, UFC made a gutsy move to switch it up six weeks before the fight. You can assure yourself this was done with plenty of background research about San Diego. It wasn't just a willy nilly move. Still, it will be an interesting situation to monitor in the coming weeks and months.

The fight card remains intact. Yushin Okami faces Mark Munoz, Jake Ellenberger takes on John Howard and Takanori Gomi battles Joe Stevenson.