CHARLES OLIVEIRA has been forced out of his rematch with Islam Makhachev due to a gruesome cut.
The former lightweight champion was due to rematch his successor atop of the division at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi a week on Saturday.
But an accidental cut above his right has forced Do Bronx out of the fight, which has prompted the promotion to call upon featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski to save the day.
UFC president Dana White said early on Tuesday morning: “He, uh, round five of sparring last night before he was supposed to jump on a plane today, splits his eyebrow wide open and had it stitched up last night.
"Obviously, can’t fly out there with that. It would be one thing too if we — they didn’t call us.
"We’d have had him go to a plastic surgeon that would have sewed it from the inside out and get that thing done the right way.
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“These guys never call us like they should when something happens,
"They call us after they get stitched up.
"But, on the flip side, too, I can see not wanting to risk it, getting a shot like this and then, y’know.”
Former pound-for-pound king Volkanovski came up short in his bid to dethrone Makhachev and become a two-division champion in February.
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5So he didn't need any convincing when the UFC brass came calling with the short-notice opportunity to exact revenge on the Russian.
He said: “The Volkanovski crew, him and Israel [Adesanya], just absolute studs, man.
"He jumps in and he accepts the fight. One phone call. "This is how we do it, brother.
"One fight falls out and we end up making a fight – it's one of the most anticipated rematches ever in that weight class."
A heartbroken Oliveira took to social media late last night to issue an apology for his withdrawal from the fight and revealed an accidental clash of heads in his final sparring session was to blame for the horror cut.
He said: “Some of you already know that I’m out of the upcoming UFC Abu Dhabi card.
"In my final training in Brazil before travelling, I clashed heads in training and suffered a deep cut that needed eight or nine stitches, something like that, I don’t know for sure.
"It’s a cut too deep to be able to fight, to recover in such a short time and be able to put on a great fight."
He added: “Everybody knows about the importance of this fight. “It’s not just a fight, it’s a title fight, so there were great things involved.
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"We didn’t want to go there unprepared.
"I know many people will judge, many people will talk, but it’s an important fight for us and we couldn’t be there at our 80 per cent, we had to be 120 per cent ready for it.”
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