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:
- 155lbs.: (C)Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski
- 145lbs.: (IC) – Yair Rodríguez vs. Josh Emmett
- 265lbs.: Justin Tafa vs. Parker Porter
- 205lbs.: Tyson Pedro vs. Zhang Mingyang
- 205lbs.: Jimmy Crute vs. Alonzo Menifield
- 145lbs.: Joshua Culibao vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan
- 125lbs.: Shannon Ross vs. Kleydson Rodrigues
- 145lbs.: Jack Jenkins vs. Don Shainis
- 155lbs.: Nasrat Haqparast vs. Jamie Mullarkey
- 155lbs.: Joel Álvarez vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
- 115lbs.: Loma Lookboonmee vs. Elise Reed
- 125lbs.: Alex Perez vs. TBD