UFC 294 takes place this coming Saturday, October 21st in Abu Dhabi with a card that has seen both the main and co-main event altered on short notice, yet still manage to have some of the biggest stars in the sport competing against each other.
Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev was originally supposed to rematch Charles Oliveira in the event’s headliner, but a bad cut in training forced ‘Do Bronx’ out last week and in his place steps featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski, who takes the short notice opportunity to try to avenge his unanimous decision loss from last year.
The undefeated Khamzat Chimaev was due to fight Paulo Costa in the co-main event until his opponent withdrew due to requiring elbow surgery last week, resulting in former welterweight champ Kamaru Usman stepping up to middleweight as a late replacement looking to shake off back-to-back 170lb title losses to Leon Edwards.
There’s also light-heavyweight action on the main card as Magomed Ankalaev looks to extend his 10-fight unbeaten run in the UFC in a fight with Johnny Walker, who has bounced back from a bad spell to put together a three-fight winning streak.
Back at middleweight, Contender Series recruit Ikram Aliskerov KO’d Phil Hawes in his UFC debut back in May and now fights Warlley Alves, who is coming in off two losses in a row.
Opening up the main card will be Said Nurmagomedov, whose four-fight winning streak came to an end last time out and now fights Muin Gafurov, who lost in his UFC debut a few months ago.
Check out the full UFC 294 fight card below.
—
Main Card
Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski
Kamaru Usman vs. Khamzat Chimaev
Magomed Ankalaev vs. Johnny Walker
Ikram Aliskerov vs. Warlley Alves
Said Nurmagomedov vs. Muin Gafurov
Prelims
Tim Elliott vs. Muhammad Mokaev
Mohammad Yahya vs. Trevor Peek
Javid Basharat vs. Victor Henry
Abu Azaitar vs. Sedriques Dumas
Mike Breeden vs. Anshul Jubli
Nathaniel Wood vs. Muhammad Naimov
Jinh Yu Frey vs. Viktoriya Dudakova
Bruno Silva vs. Shara Magomedov
