p>The road to UFC 223 has been a crazy one. From fight cancellations to arrests, the MMA fans have been on a rollercoaster ride for the past few days and things seem to be settled with just hours away from the show.
Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was initially supposed to fight Tony Ferguson at the event, will now fight Al Iaquinta in the main event of the show. After Tony pulled out, Max Holloway came in as a replacement but Holloway was also forced to withdraw from the fight due to a bad weight cut.
Former Lightweight champion Anthony Pettis was then considered for the position but as the negotiations between Pettis and UFC failed, the promotion decided to go with Al Iaquinta in the end.
The New York native, however, was .02 pounds above the eligible weight limit for the title which in turn adds more uncertainty to the fight. Nevertheless, Dana White has assured that a new champion will be crowned after the UFC 223 main event.
Elsewhere, the pay-per-view will be co-main evented by the Women’s Strawweight championship fight between Rose Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Pettis and Paul Felder have been taken off the card as part of the reshuffle and UFC 223 now has nine fights on offer.
Below is the finalized fight card after all the chaos that went down.
Main Card:
Preliminary Card:
UFC 223 will be live and exclusive on 8th April 2018 7:30 am on SONY ESPN SD & SONY ESPN HD