Proper Backups From Now On, Please

If there’s one thing the main event of UFC 311 should teach us, it’s that the UFC should always have proper backups set for championship matches.

UFC 311 went down on Saturday night from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California and featured two title fights for the first pay-per-view of the year. Unfortunately, as happens regularly enough in MMA, one of them fell out the day before the event.

Islam Makhachev was set to face Arman Tsarukyan in a battle for the lightweight title. But Tsarukyan’s back seized up while cutting weight, forcing him off the card. On many other major PPV cards, the UFC has paid backups waiting in the wings for just such an occasion. But for UFC 311, there was no one.

So the UFC did the best they could: they pulled Renato Moicano out of his match with Beneil Dariush on the same card and slotted him against Makhachev. It wasn’t the most inspiring choice. Despite his popularity, Moicano is ranked No. 10 at lightweight and nearly got run through by Jalin Turner at UFC 300. He impressed against Benoit Saint Denis later in 2024, but BSD doesn’t have the wrestling chops of Makhachev.

The fight went as expected: “Money” Moicano was taken down with ease by Islam. Seconds later, he was tapping to a brabo choke (watch the finish here). The fight lasted just four minutes and five seconds, and there was barely any explosion from the Los Angeles crowd. The UFC tried to prop this main event up as legit, but it barely got started before being revealed as a squash match.

So we have to wonder: why wasn’t there a proper backup for Makhachev vs. Tsarukyan?

The UFC doesn’t always book backups for championship fights, but they tend to for bigger matches. UFC 310’s flyweight battle between Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Asakura had no backup. But UFC 309’s Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic fight did: Tom Aspinall, who was paid a hefty $200,000 to stay ready right up until both men made their walk. At UFC 308, Diego Lopes was tapped as the backup for Ilia Topuria’s featherweight title defense against Max Holloway.

Was UFC 311 an example of the promotion being too tight with their money to pony up six figures for a proper replacement? Did they rely too much on the grit of Makhachev and Tsarukyan? Or were they just unable to find contenders at the top of the division willing to step in against either man under less than optimal conditions?

With the UFC, the show must always go on. We applaud the promotion for always figuring out something in the face of wild last moment cancellations. And we applaud Renato Moicano for stepping up, and Islam Makhachev for knocking him down. But let this disappointing and obvious result be the reminder the promotion needs that proper backups for championship fights should be the norm.