Tomoaki Honma off of NJPW anniversary show; UFC 209 update

There are a couple of changes on the UFC and New Japan shows due to the situations with Tomoaki Honma and Khabib Nurmagomedov yesterday.

There is still little in the way of updates on Honma. New Japan has only released that Honma is off the show due to a neck injury. As of last night, even those in the company were not told anything new.

The last news, which was as of yesterday afternoon, is that Honma was able to speak and move his head, but he could not move his arms and his legs. He was able to speak when he was in the ring as well after taking a DDT off the middle rope from Jado and losing all movement on impact. 

Honma is hospitalized in Okinawa right now.

Makabe & Honma were to challenge Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Instead, Yano & Ishii will defend against Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and the undercard has been rearranged.

New Japan’s anniversary show at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo, which takes place Monday morning at 5 a.m. ET on New Japan World, has this new lineup:

  • Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tomoyuki Oka
  • Gedo & Jado & Yoshi-Hashi & Hirooki Goto vs. Minoru Suzuki & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Taka Michinoku & Desperado
  • Togi Makabe & Yuji Nagata & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & David Finlay vs. Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa
  • Rocky Romero & Baretta vs. Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the IWGP jr. tag titles
  • Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the British heavyweight title
  • Ishii & Yano vs. Kojima & Tenzan for the IWGP tag titles
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson & Kushida vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi
  • Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi for the IWGP jr. title
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) in a non-title match

This is the new show for today’s UFC 209 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas:

Fight Pass at 7 p.m. ET —

  • Albert Morales (135.5) vs. Andre Soukhamthath (136)
  • Paul Craig (204) vs. Tyson Pedro (205)

FS1 at 8 p.m. ET —

  • Mark Godbeer (241.5) vs. Daniel Spitz (240)
  • Iuri Alcantara (135.5) vs. Luke Sanders (135)
  • Mirsad Bektic (145) vs. Darren Elkins (145.5)
  • Luis Henrique (248.5) vs. Marcin Tybura (251.5)

PPV at 10 p.m. ET —

  • Cynthia Calvillo (115.5) vs. Amanda Cooper (116)
  • Mark Hunt (265) vs. Alistair Overeem (256)
  • David Teymur (156) vs. Lando Vannata (156)
  • Rashad Evans (185) vs. Daniel Kelly (186)
  • Tyron Woodley (170) vs. Stephen Thompson (169) for the welterweight title

In a trivia note, Sanders is the boyfriend of WWE performer Becky Lynch.