Shortage of available champions prompts UFC to move Jan. 21 Anaheim card to Aug. 5

The UFC, confronted with a string of unavailable title fighters, announced Thursday it has moved its planned Jan. 21 pay-per-view fight card at Honda Center to Aug. 5.

The company didn’t elaborate on the shift in a prepared statement except to note that UFC 208 will now take place at New York’s Barclays Center on Feb. 11.

The organization prefers to have a full or interim title fight atop its pay-per-view cards, but the ability to do so for Jan. 21 was complicated by the UFC’s decision to load its first New York card on Nov. 12 with three title fights.

Then, the champion who made the most sense to headline the original UFC 208 — Orange County trained middleweight champion Michael Bisping of England — suffered a knee injury that delayed his availability until at least March, UFC President Dana White previously said.

Two other title fights — the men’s and women’s bantamweight belts — will be decided Dec. 30 at UFC 207 in Las Vegas, where heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic’s next foe will also emerge.

Although there’s an interim featherweight title fight Dec. 10 in Toronto between former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and No. 3-ranked featherweight Max Holloway, with newly named champion Jose Aldo awaiting, Pettis said fighting with a turnaround of less than 50 days would be close to impossible.

Men’s flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson defends his belt Saturday in Las Vegas and light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is injured.

The postponement also means a fuller audience for rival mixed martial arts organization Bellator, which is staging a Jan. 21 card at the Forum between former UFC light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz and former title challenger Chael Sonnen.

The move adjusts the placement of UFC 209 to March 4 in Las Vegas.

MMA fans have speculated UFC 209 is an ideal spot to place one or both of the Diaz brothers — Nate or Nick — who proudly hail from the 209 area code in Stockton.