UFC fighter Daniel Kelly says "the blame lays squarely on Brace and [fighters] should be paid" after the mixed martial arts promotion had a show shut down by the ACT government.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Brace chief executive Kya Pate will receive a report from the ACT government on Monday detailing reasons for the cancellation of Brace 53, which was shut down after the weigh-in last Friday night.
The government told Fairfax Media the decision to cancel the event was based on "the need to prioritise the safety of all competitors" in a damning accusation levelled at the promotion.
However "if Brace MMA can meet the legislated requirements for the rescheduling of this event or for future events, there is no reason why Canberra cannot remain an event location for the promotion".
Kelly is the coach of Canberra's Duke Didier, who was supposed to defend his Brace light heavyweight championship against Jacob Malkoun at Brace 53 at the AIS Arena on Saturday night.
Instead of defending his belt, Didier spent his Saturday calling sponsors to make new arrangements, headlining a group of fighters that have suffered financially as a result of the cancellation.
Kelly wasn't going to be in Didier's corner having left the country to prepare for his next bout at UFC Liverpool later this month, but took to Instagram to voice his frustration in support of Didier, writing "the blame lays squarely on Brace and you should be paid".
Pate is waiting for more details before commenting however the promotion sent a statement to ticket holders on Sunday morning.
"After setting up the event arena on Friday and as we were in the process of conducting the weigh in we were notified via phone that the ACT Combat board (ACT government) was not permitting the event to proceed," a Brace statement read.
"Brace had already applied for permits well in advance and had the sanctioning body approval. We will be receiving a full report on Monday 7th of May from the ACT government as to the reasons.
"The only limited information we have at this stage is that some of the fighters' registration status was not completed.
"ACT Combat board is new to governing MMA within the territory and we can only hope situations like this for all events are handled differently moving forward."
A government spokeswoman says "a number of medical clearances and other technical requirements under the Boxing Control Act were not met" by the promotion.
It is the second time in less than three months Brace has had to cancel a show in Canberra, with an event originally scheduled for March 3 postponed due to a co-main event competitor failing a medical and others withdrawing.
Didier was supposed to headline the show in March before his title defence was shifted to May, however the 29-year-old has been left without a fight both times and his immediate future is unclear.
The Brace organisation has been left staggered by the decision to cancel the entire event and will now begin to "refund all tickets in full".
"After 10 years of events across nine cities, four states and two countries we have never had an event cancelled from a governing body," the statement read.
"It is not the norm, in fact we have never heard of this happening for the little limited reasons given, we have however had at almost every fight event had fights removed from the card due to incomplete fighter registrations (this happens at nearly every show we have staged) and is something we are used to.
"We can say we were very ready to proceed with this event on Saturday, the Arena was ready, the AIS and Brace were set for action."
