The UFC 280 lineup is stacked from top to bottom, but it’s a little less lengthy than it was seven days ago.
Three fighters are off the card for different reasons, MMA Junkie has learned. All three combatants were expected to compete on the prelims of the Oct. 22 pay-per-view event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
UFC 280 is headlined by two title fights. In the main event, Charles Oliveira faces Islam Makhachev for the vacant UFC lightweight championship. In the co-main event, bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling defends his title against former champion T.J. Dillashaw.
Scroll below to see which fighters have recently dropped off the card.
Slim Trablesi
In one of the quickest stints in UFC history, Slim Trablesi was onboarded and off-boarded from the UFC roster in the span of little over a day due to contractual issues with ARES FC, cited by manager Ali Abdelaziz, of Dominance MMA. Trablesi (5-0) was expected to step in for the withdrawn Hamdy Abdelwahab against Parker Porter.
Parker Porter
With Hamdy Abdelwahab and Slim Trabelsi out, Parker Porter was left without an opponent. A little over one month out from the event, sources say the parties involved have elected to pursue a later fighter, rather than a replacement barring unforeseen circumstances.
Jamie Mullarkey
Jamie Mullarkey has withdrawn from his lightweight bout against Magomed Mustafaev due to injury, multiple sources Saturday told MMA Junkie. Neither the extent of the injury nor Musatafaev’s replacement opponent status is known at this time.
With the changes, the UFC 280 lineup includes:
- Champion Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev – for lightweight title
- Champion Aljamain Sterling vs. T.J. Dillashaw – for bantamweight title
- Sean O’Malley vs. Petr Yan
- Beneil Dariush vs. Mateusz Gamrot
- Katlyn Chookagian vs. Manon Fiorot
- Sean Brady vs. Belal Muhammad
- Caio Borralho vs. Makhmud Muradov
- Nikita Krylov vs. Volkan Oezdemir
- Lucas Almeida vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
- Magomed Mustafaev vs. TBA
- Abubakar Nurmagomedov vs. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev
- A.J. Dobson vs. Armen Petrosyan
- Malcolm Gordon vs. Muhammad Mokaev
- Lina Lansberg vs. Karol Rosa
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 280.