It might be time to protect Alexander Volkanovski at all costs.
UFC 284 in Perth, Australia on Feb. 11, 2023, took another hit this week as today (Thurs., Dec. 22, 2022) top UFC Flyweight contender, Kai Kara-France, revealed that he’s suffered an injury, removing him from his match up against Alex Perez. A replacement for Kara-France has yet to be determined.
“Unfortunately due to injury, I’ve had to pull out of my up coming fight in Perth,” Kara-France tweeted. “I’m gutted I won’t be able to fight in front of everyone in Aus. To everyone who supports me, Im sorry. This has been frustrating but i know I’m making the right decision.Much respect @alexperezMMA”
The Perez fight was set to act as Kara-France’s rebound attempt off a July 2022 interim title tilt loss in his rematch against Brandon Moreno (watch highlights). Before the loss, Kara-France was on arguably his best stretch yet in the promotion, winning three straight with knockouts of Rogerio Bontorin (watch highlights) and former Bantamweight champion, Cody Garbrandt. He capped off the streak, handing Askar Askarov his first and only career loss this far.
Former Middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, lost his highly-anticipated fight with Paulo Costa on Monday (Dec. 19, 2022) after contract negotiations fell through on Costa’s end. UFC 284 will be the promotion’s first event in Oceania since Feb. 2020 and the first in Australia since Oct. 2019 with the record-breaking UFC 243.
The current UFC 284 lineup can be seen here:
- 155 lbs.: (C)Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski
- 145 lbs.: (IC) - Yair Rodríguez vs. Josh Emmett
- 265 lbs.: Justin Tafa vs. Parker Porter
- 205 lbs.: Tyson Pedro vs. Zhang Mingyang
- 205 lbs.: Jimmy Crute vs. Alonzo Menifield
- 145 lbs.: Joshua Culibao vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan
- 125 lbs.: Shannon Ross vs. Kleydson Rodrigues
- 145 lbs.: Jack Jenkins vs. Don Shainis
- 155 lbs.: Nasrat Haqparast vs. Jamie Mullarkey
- 155 lbs.: Joel Álvarez vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
- 115 lbs.: Loma Lookboonmee vs. Elise Reed
- 125 lbs.: Alex Perez vs. TBD
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 284 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard on ESPN/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 284: “Islam vs. Volkanovski” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.
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