Khabib Nurmagomedov will now face Al Iaquinta in the main event of UFC 223. It’s nowhere close to the headliner people had envisioned happening on Saturday’s card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., but the matchup is the result of UFC officials trying to salvage an unprecedented mess.
UFC president Dana White announced the bout Friday afternoon.
One week ago, Nurmagomedov was slated to fight Tony Ferguson, with the winner set to be crowned lightweight champion. However Ferguson suffered a freak knee injury when he tripped over a chord while fulfilling media obligations in New York.
The UFC announced Sunday that featherweight champion Max Holloway would serve as Ferguson’s replacement and the matchup looked promising until early Friday morning when the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) deemed Holloway unfit to compete.
Holloway was in the process of shedding the final few pounds to make the 155-pound lightweight limit, but commission officials would not allow Holloway to continue losing water weight for fear it would be unsafe.
“My brother I want to keep going but they are stopping me,” Holloway wrote in a tweet to Nurmagomedov. “Sorry to your team and the fans.”
Nurmagomedov stepped on the scale Friday morning weighing 154.5 pounds, but the news about Holloway left the UFC scrambling to find the 25-0 Dagestani star yet another replacement opponent.
The UFC’s first option was former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, who had been scheduled to fight Michael Chiesa before Chiesa was forced off the card after suffering lacerations to his face and head Thursday thanks to Conor McGregor’s antics.
Pettis, despite not having an opponent, still weighed in Friday morning on the off chance the UFC might need to use him as a replacement—but also as a means to ensure he’d be paid his “show money.” According to Karyn Bryant of FOX Sports, Pettis asked the UFC for a bigger payday in order to accept a five-round fight against Nurmagomedov—his bout with Chiesa was scheduled for three rounds—but the UFC apparently did not want to shell out the extra dough.
The UFC’s next option was Iaquinta’s original opponent, Paul Felder. Yet a potential Nurmagomedov-Felder matchup was quickly dismissed by the NYSAC because the governing body didn’t like the fact Felder is not currently among the top 15 contenders at lightweight, according to the UFC’s latest official rankings.
Iaquinta was the third option and since he is a ranked contender—currently No. 11 in the division—the NYSAC approved the pairing.
However, since Iaquinta weighed in at 155.2 pounds rather than 155, he will be ineligible to win the lightweight bout if he becomes the first fighter to defeat Nurmagomedov. Athletes involved in non-title fights are given an extra one-pound allowance (meaning he could’ve weighed as heavy as 156 pounds for a lightweight bout) but since Iaquinta thought he’d be fighting Felder at the time there was no reason for him to cut the extra 0.2 pounds.
If Nurmagomedov wins, on the other hand, he will be the new lightweight titleholder since he weighed in with a half pound to spare.
Iaquinta is 13–3–1 riding a five-fight winning streak, including knockouts of Diego Sanchez, Joe Lauzon and Ross Pearson.
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