Volkan Oezdemir's felony battery case to start 11 days before January 20th title fight

Volkan Oezdemir may have no time to deal with a court case in January, but that's not going to stop the state of Florida from trying him right around the same time he's set to fight for the light heavyweight title at UFC 220.

Oezdemir is the next opponent for 205 pound champ Daniel Cormier at UFC 220, which goes down on January 20th from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Eleven days earlier, on January 9th, he'll be arraigned in Broward County Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court at 9AM over third-degree felony charges of battery causing great bodily harm. Not exactly the best timing in the world.

This all stems from an altercation that went down in August, with alleged victim Kevin Cohen claiming Oezdemir KO'd him outside a bar called Capone's, leaving him unconscious for 14 minutes and resulting in multiple lacerations that required staples to close. For Oezdemir's part, he claims the whole thing was an act of self defense.

The charges against the UFC fighter were originally more severe: aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability, which is a second-degree felony. Regardless, a loss would be a serious issue for the Swiss fighter, who would be facing jail time, fines, a civil suit, and lots of trouble entering other countries to fight.

At least there's little chance Oezdemir will be bumped from UFC 220 over the charges. This is just an arraignment, so there'll be more dates ahead. But if Volkan misses the January 9th hearing for some reason, a warrant will be put out for his arrest.

UFC 220 is headlined by a heavyweight title fight between champ Stipe Miocic and challenger Francis Ngannou, with the light heavyweight title fight of Cormier vs. Volkan the co-main.