In ten days, reigning UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev will go out for a rematch with a former opponent, but not the one that was scheduled.
UFC CEO Dana White has officially confirmed that Charles Oliveira suffered an eyebrow laceration requiring stitches and has pulled out of UFC 294, and his spot on the card will be taken by current UFC featherweight titleholder Aleksander Volkanovski.
In February of this year, the Australian fighter made an unsuccessful attempt to take the lightweight championship belt from Makhachev, losing to the Russian by unanimous decision at UFC 284 in Perth. Volkanovski then successfully unified the interim and current UFC featherweight titles against Yair Rodriguez, and was scheduled to make a title defense next January against the division’s No. 5-ranked Elijah Topuria.
Alex Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev are currently ranked as the second and third best fighters in the organization’s rankings regardless of weight, respectively.
Recall that the UFC 294 tournament will take place on October 21 in Abu Dhabi.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32843-u-islama-makhacheva-smenilsya-sopernik.html?rand=19907
