When the UFC 294 pay-per-view (PPV) event imploded, thanks to devastating injuries in both the main and co-main events, the promotion scrambled to keep the Abu Dhabi fight card together with a series of short-notice (and high-profile) replacements.
In addition to booking the lightweight rematch between Islam Makhachev and Alex Volkanovski, officials were hoping to convince 185-pound champion Sean Strickland to make his first title defense against undefeated middleweight sensation Khamzat Chimaev.
“From my understanding, they just threw it out there to see if he’d be available, and then when Sean had asked me, to be honest, I was the one that kind of said no,” coach Erick Nicksick told ESPN MMA. “I was like, bro, I can’t be there. I mean, we can go out there, but it just didn’t make any sense to me whatsoever to take a short-notice fight against a killer.”
It certainly didn’t end well for Volkanovski.
Strickland, 32, was just a few weeks removed from his five-round, title-winning performance against Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 in Sydney, a short-notice bout he accepted when Dricus Du Plessis inexplicably passed on the opportunity to compete for the 185-pound crown.
“Sean Strickland can fight anybody on any day’s notice we know that he’s done it before in the past,” Nicksick continued. “But why is it our responsibility to go put our title on the line on short notice when we already did them the solid by fighting Izzy on five and a half weeks notice? He did have an infection in his foot and everything else so, just didn’t sound right. It just felt like a trap, you know, it felt like a big trap so I told him, I said no.”
Chimaev, 29, remained in the UFC 294 co-main event against former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, who came up short on the judges’ scorecards after three rounds of hard-fought action. As for Strickland, no word yet on when he’s expected to return.
Whenever that is, “Borz” will be waiting.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
