UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has revealed that he’s been given the nod as the back-up fighter for UFC 280’s main event.
Volkanovski (25-1) revealed the news on his official Youtube channel.
“We’re locked in as a backup fighter,” Volkanovski stated in a recent video. “I’ve been calling it, I said I wanted it, just had to make sure the hand was all good, so we’re all good. We’re locked in, and we got the clearance to fight.
“The UFC is on board, everyone is on board, so I’ll be at UFC 280 to make weight, and yeah, looking forward to it. We’ll see what happens. If someone doesn’t make it, I’m there to save the day. If not, at least I’m locked in as the next guy to fight for that lightweight title, and that’s that.”
UFC 280 takes place on October 22, 2022 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev for the promotion’s vacant lightweight title set as the main event. Should either Oliveira or Makhachev be unable to compete, it appears Volkanovski will get the chance to earn double-champ status.
The October PPV card currently boasts the following match-ups:
- Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev – for the vacant UFC lightweight championship
- Aljamain Sterling (c) vs. T.J. Dillashaw – for the UFC bantamweight championship
- Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley
- Beneil Dariush vs. Mateusz Gamrot
- Katlyn Chookagian vs. Manon Fiorot
- Belal Muhammad vs. Sean Brady
- Makhmud Muradov vs. Caio Borralho
- Nikita Krylov vs. Volkan Oezdemir
- Zubaira Tukhugov vs. Lucas Almeida
- Magomed Mustafaev vs. Yamato Nishikawa
- Abubakar Nurmagomedov vs. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev
- Armen Petrosyan vs. A.J. Dobson
- Muhammad Mokaev vs. Malcolm Gordon
- Karol Rosa vs. Lina Länsberg
