On Wednesady, Dana White said he was going to have some big announcements to make later in the evening; and he wasn’t lying. Some of the news amounted to confirmations of rumours that had been circulating, while others came as a huge shock. Before we get into the potential losers from these announcements, let’s first recap what happened. You can find articles diving deeper into all these individual announcements on our website!
UFC London on March 22 got a brand-new main event. Leon Edwards will now face Sean Brady instead of Jack Della Maddalena, who was re-booked.
The entire UFC 314 card going down in Miami on April 12 was announced. Alexander Volkanovski will face Diego Lopes for the vacant featherweight title as Ilia Topuria is officially moving up to lightweight. Michael Chandler will face Paddy Pimblett in a 5-round co-main event. Yair Rodriguez will welcome Bellator legend Patricio Pitbull to the UFC. Also on the card is Geoff Neal vs Carlos Prates and Dan Ige vs Sean Woodson.
The UFC 315 main and co-main events were also confirmed. Jack Della Maddalena was pulled from his UFC London fight to instead fight Belal Muhammad for the welterweight belt. Shavkat Rakhmonov was revealed to be injured at UFC 310 and his recovery time won’t allow him to be ready in time for May. Valentina Shevchenko will face rightful number 1 contender Manon Fiorot in the co-main event. Also, Gilbert Burns vs Michael Morales was moved from UFC 314 to UFC 315.
With this recap out of the way, let’s get into who lost the most from this breaking news.
Movsar Evloev
It’s easy to make the argument that Evloev wasn’t screwed of anything here, since he wouldn’t have been able to make the April 12 date due to Ramadan taking place in March. And while that argument does hold water in terms of the timing of the vacant title fight, I would argue Evloev belongs in this article for more than one reason.
First off, we have seen Muslim fighters compete during Ramadan in the past. It doesn’t happen often, but to say it’s a completely non-negotiable dealbreaker for all of them would be inaccurate. However, it would be unfair to speculate on Evloev’s willingness to compete during such an important religious period. After his victory in December, the Russian did mention that he would’ve liked to compete once more before the start of Ramadan. A quick turnaround followed by another win could’ve sealed the deal on him being next in line, but he wasn’t granted his wish and didn’t compete in either January or February.
Additionally, Patricio Pitbull is finally making the jump to the UFC. At 37 going on 38, you could say he made that jump a couple years too late, but he’s here, nevertheless. In 2021 and 2022, when both he and Volkanovski were at the height of their powers, this was a fight that had fans talking for months. Should Pitbull and Volkanovski be victorious at UFC 314, and knowing the limited time they both have, would anyone put it past the UFC to have them fight each other before calling Movsar? There is a very real scenario where Pitbull is given a title shot if he defeats Rodriguez in April. In the meantime, they would most likely have Evloev fight one more time.
Had he gotten his wish and squeaked another fight in before Ramadan, Evloev could’ve made himself the undeniable number 1 contender. However, he now faces a potential reality where, depending on some results that are out of his control, he could be tasked with winning yet another fight before getting a shot at the title.
Shavkat Rakhmonov
Not unlike, Evloev, Shavkat Rakhmonov now finds himself at the mercy of results that are out of his control. With Topuria moving up to lightweight, most would assume that the UFC will look to book him against Islam Makhachev, sometime around International Fight Week. The mere fact White didn’t announce Makhachev vs Topuria in the myriads of news he was breaking means it isn’t a done deal.
Makhachev has said more than once that he, like others from his camp, is driven by legacy. He wants to become the greatest mixed martial artist he can be, but the narrative around his title reign is that he’s only faced the same featherweight twice and two arguably undeserving former featherweights. Facing another 145-pounder, as good as Topuria is, would only fuel this narrative even if Makhachev were to defeat him in impressive fashion. For that reason, it is entirely possible that Makhachev will look to just wait for the result of Muhammad vs Della Maddalena in May. We know that Muhammad and Makhachev won’t fight each other out of respect for one another as teammates, but what if the Australian is victorious in Montreal?
Should the UFC fail to finalize and announce Makhachev vs Topuria before Della Maddalena dethrones Muhammad, maybe the Russian fighter simply opts the move up. If that is the case, then Della Maddalena would face Makhachev in the second half of the year, leaving Rakhmonov without a dance partner. Given his recent stretches of long layoffs, it would be surprising if the Kazakh fighter is content to just wait for the winner of Della Maddalena vs Makhachev. There were nine months between his Geoff Neal and Stephen Thompson fights, followed by a full year until his Ian Machado Garry fight. At 30, in the middle of his prime, I can’t imagine that he would be satisfied with sitting until late winter or spring of 2026 to compete again.
Rakhmonov, who was originally meant to fight for the title last December, might be looking at yet another number 1 contender fight before finally getting the title shot he had already earned. Needless to say, I have a hunch that “Nomad” will be a big Belal Muhammad fan on May 10.
Kai Kara-France
Lost in this flood of huge announcements was the omission of Alexandre Pantoja. There had been rumours flying around that “The Cannibal” could be fighting Kara-France in Miami. If the April date didn’t work out, then surely May would be fine, right? As it turns out, the Brazilian won’t fight on either of these events.
Why is that bad for the Kiwi? Well, after Pantoja quickly dispatched of Kai Asakura at UFC 310, “Don’t Blink” was seen as the almost unanimous next man up by the fans. Most fans believed he won his fight with Amir Albazi, so following that up with a stunning first-round KO of Steve Erceg should’ve sealed the deal.
The fact that we now know Pantoja will defend his belt in June at the earliest means this gives Manel Kape an avenue. Kape was set to face Brandon Royval in a Fight Night main event on March 1, but will instead clash with Asu Almabayev after Royval pulled out due to concussions. The Almabayev fight isn’t as eye-catching a matchup as the initial one, but the Kazakh fighter is still firmly inside the top 10 and is undefeated in the promotion. This would still represent a quality win for Kape. If Kape has an impressive showing against Almabayev, maybe even knocks him out early, then who’s to say the UFC wouldn’t rather book him in a title fight? Kape lost his promotional debut four years ago to Pantoja, but has since shown flashes of brilliance (go look at his finish of Ode’ Osbourne). You might think the turnaround from March to June is fast, but fighters have done much more for title opportunities in the past. Furthermore, Kape himself once made a 35-day turnaround between his first two fights in the promotion. So three months should be plenty of time, especially if he gets a quick finish against Almabayev, and especially for a title shot.
Kara-France who was seen as the obvious next contender in line just a couple months ago, might get passed over because he couldn’t get on either of the Miami or the Montreal cards. Only time will tell how things shake out on that end.
