UFC 294 has had another major change!
After suffering a staph infection that necessitated another surgery, Paulo Costa is officially out of his scheduled co-main event fight against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294, and former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman is stepping in. This will be Usman’s first fight at middleweight and his first bout since losing his rematch with Leon Edwards at UFC 286.
This massive change comes less than 24 hours after it was announced that Alexander Volkanovski will be stepping in on 10 days’ notice to rematch Islam Makhachev in the main event of the same fight card, replacing an injured Charles Oliveira.
Given the enormity of this breaking news, MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee circled the wagons for an emergency reaction pod, discussing what just happened, what comes next for all parties involved, and whether these unexpected changes actually made UFC 294 a more compelling fight card.