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How’s this for a downgrade? Or upgrade depending on the perspective.
After Kai Kara-France declared himself out of his UFC 293 bout against Manel Kape on Monday, Felipe Dos Santos has been tabbed to replace him at the Sept. 9 pay-per-view event from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
Two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed the booking to MMA Junkie after an initial report from MMA Fighting. The people requested anonymity since the UFC hasn’t made an official announcement.
The new matchup means Kape, who’s No. 10 in the official UFC flyweight rankings, goes from meeting a fighter ranked ahead of him (Kara-France is No. 5) to welcoming a promotional newcomer. Dos Santos was slated to compete Tuesday at Dana White’s Contender Series 59, but his opponent, Luciano Pereira, didn’t weigh in because of medical issues. Now dos Santos, 22, gets a golden opportunity to make an immediate splash jumping into the biggest fight of his life on less than three weeks’ notice.
Dos Santos is 7-0 in his professional career, most recently winning a unanimous decision vs. Hugo Paiva under the LFA banner last November.
Kape (18-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC) is riding three straight wins after a rocky 0-2 start to his UFC tenure. After joining the UFC in February 2021, he dropped fights against Alexandre Pantoja and Matheus Nicolau. Since then, he’s beaten Ode Osbourne, Zhalgas Zhumagulov, and David Dvorak.
With the change, here is the updated UFC 293 lineup:
MAIN CARD (ESPN+ pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPNNews, ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD, (ESPNNews, ESPN+, 6:30 p.m. ET)
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from April 2024: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month award for April. At the bottom of the post, let us know...
Fighters are often criticized for failing to prioritize their financial interests in their MMA careers, but no such accusation can be made toward Irish prospect Paul Hughes. Hughes (11-1), a former Cage Warriors champion, just went through the process of free agency and had bids on the table from...
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