The upstart World Cagefighting Organization was forced to cancel their inaugural event mere hours before the fight card was scheduled to begin.

The WCO show, which was co-promoted by Valor Fighting, was forced to close up shop by the California State Athletic Commission. CSAC executive director Armando Garcia told Josh Gross of Sherdog.com:

At the eleventh hour, the commission was informed there were insufficient funds to pay the fighters. In the end, we had to cancel the event.

According to Ken Pisha as MMAWeekly.com:

Several fighters indicated that they were approached to tear up their current contracts and sign new agreements that would pay them $100 for fighting on the event and then sign a separate agreement that would make up the difference between the $100 and their originally agreed upon purse in what would be dubbed an “appearance fee” to be paid at a later date.

Garcia told MMAWeekly.com that when he found out about the re-worked contracts, he determined that the commission could not support that idea.

The event was originally loaded with some “big-name” fighters including Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Vernon “Tiger” White, David Loiseau, Ricco Rodriguez, Mark Kerr, Joe Riggs, Mike Kyle, and Wesley “Cabbage” Correira.

Even though the fight card has been cancelled, the CSAC requires the fighters still be paid 20% of their purse by January 18.