Citing low ticket sales, DEEP has officially announced the postponement of its planned “Mayhem In Macao” event that was scheduled to take place this Saturday, January 8th. A revised date for the event, which was to be held in The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, was not named in the release.

The postponement comes less than three months after another promotion, Fury, cancelled a planned event in Macau amidst embezzlement allegations after fighters had already been flown into the country. The controversy that surrounded the failed Fury event may have impacted DEEP ticket sales.

Mixed martial arts promotions, including the Martial Combat organisation which has successfully held numerous events in Singapore, have recently looked to areas in Asia (outside of Japan) to stage shows. Among those targeted areas is Macau – also spelled Macao, as in the name of the DEEP event – but Saturday’s postponement represents the second time in a row that low ticket sales have forced a mixed martial arts event to be scrapped in the region. Worse yet, the cancellations have taken place within a three-month time period.

On October 7th, Fury 2: “Armageddon” was cancelled. The event had been scheduled to take place two days later at the City of Dreams casino in Macau, but was scrapped amidst allegations that the show’s promoter had embezzled millions of dollars. A lengthy war of words followed been various individuals involved with the event, but the late cancellation of the card resulted in fighters being stranded in Macau with no hotel rooms or return flights home.

The backlash and “shame” that came after the Fury event collapsed lingered for many weeks and may have adversely affected DEEP’s ability to sell tickets for Saturday’s card.

The promotion had planned to feature many of its biggest stars and prospects at “Mayhem In Macao,” including champions Masakazu Imanari and Yuya Shirai, as well as Jewels postergirl Saori Ishioka. However, with the event scrapped, fighters on the card will be forced to wait to see how the company moves forward with its plans for early 2011. At present, it is unknown if the debut event in Macau will be rescheduled, nor whether fighters who were set to take part in the show will fight on another upcoming DEEP card in Japan instead.

DEEP’s announcement provided sufficient notice to fighters involved with the event and there have been no reported instances of fighters travelling to Macau in advance of the show.

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