The UFC 311 event was thrown into temporary dissaray one day before it’s due to begin Saturday, the 18th of January, as main event fighter Arman Tsarukyan, who was scheduled to challenge the UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, withdrew from the bout on Friday, citing a back injury.
With Makhachev in the headline spot, it left the UFC scrambling to find a replacement opponent for Makhachev, or bump co-feature fighters Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov to the main event spot. Fortunately, top UFC brass had Renato Moicano further down the card, who happily jumped at the chance to take on the Russian. Moicano’s initial opponent, Beneil Dariush, will no longer fight on the card.
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Why Renato Moicano is Replacing Arman Tsarukyan vs Islam Makhachev at UFC 311
Why Renato Moicano is now fighting Islam Makhachev in UFC 311 main event — Dana White.
Islam Makhachev Appears to Hope Dana White Has Learned a Lesson
It’s a simultaneous message to everybody else in the UFC roster, too
In an eight-word message posted on Instagram, Makhachev said the following to Dana White:
“Now you understand what is the meaning p4p [pound-for-pound].”
It’s a likely reference to White’s ongoing infatuation with Jon Jones as the No.1 fighter in all UFC, despite the fact he’s only fought twice in the last two years, and is yet to unify the heavyweight championship against his clear No.1 challenger, Tom Aspinall, the interim heavyweight titleholder.
White has long proclaimed Jones as the very best on current form, regardless of weight class, which is traditionally what determines the best pound-for-pound fighters.
With four successive UFC lightweight championship fights under his belt already, and victories over Charles Oliveira, Alexander Volkanovski (twice), and Dustin Poirier over the last 26 months, what Makhachev has accomplished is arguably superior to Jones’s wins over Ciryl Gane and Stipe Miocic in the modern era.
When talking on the UFC 311 Weigh-In show, White shared Makhachev’s reaction to having to fight a last-minute replacement in Moicano, rather than the original opponent he’d been preparing for — Tsarukyan.
“When we called Islam Makhachev, he said, ‘Brother, I am the champion. I fight anybody, I don’t care’.”
Makhachev, meanwhile, has a chance to reinforce his position as the pound-for-pound best in the UFC by putting on a clinic against Moicano, atop a pay-per-view card from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, which also features fights like Merab Dvalishvili against Umar Nurmagomedov, Jiri Prochazka vs Jamahal Hill, Jailton Almeida against Sergey Spivak, and Kevin Holland vs Reinier de Ridder.
Earlier on the show, red hot prospect Payton Talbott headlines the subscription-only prelims on ESPN+ as he takes on Raoni Barcelos at bantamweight.
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