Dana White has announced that Charles Oliveira will not fight in the main event at UFC 294, with Alex Volkanovski stepping in to face Islam Makhachev.
Australian featherweight champion Volkanovski takes Oliveira’s place after the latter was forced to pull out of the fight due to splitting his eyebrow open in sparring earlier this week.
Islam Makhachev, the defending lightweight champion, holds the belt after beating Oliveira at UFC 280 via unanimous decision last year.
The Russian successfully defended his title at UFC 284 against Volkanovski in Perth, Australia by unanimous decision once again in February.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL 😱
Charles Oliveira is out of next Saturday’s #UFC294 main event, @AlexVolkanovski is replacing in a rematch for the Lightweight title with @MakhachevMMA
[ @InAbuDhabi | #InAbuDhabi | @VisitAbuDhabi ] pic.twitter.com/zR3Nlqzl7P— UFC (@ufc) October 11, 2023
A host of changes are occurring for next weekend’s card, including Paulo Costa’s reported withdrawal from his highly anticipated bout with Khamzat Chimaev – forcing Dana White to continue the search for a top-ranked middleweight to stand in.
The last contest between Makhachev and Volkanovski was a back-and-forth affair which some argued was a closer fight than the unanimous decision suggested. Both fighters exchanged pleasantries after and campaigned for a rematch.
On 11 days notice, the Aussie featherweight faces a difficult task to beat the odds and mark what could only be described as a historic triumph.
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