UFC’s final pay-per-view in 2024 suffers another significant loss. The Dana White-led promotion has revealed that, following Martin Buday’s withdrawal from his scheduled UFC 310 encounter with Rizvan Kuniev, the fight has been removed from the card. But why? Well, that’s because no replacement fighter for Kuniev has been found.

This follows the significant change brought in the card a few weeks ago when Belal Muhammad s͏u͏ff͏ere͏d a͏͏n ͏inj͏͏ury͏ ͏that ͏re͏q͏u͏i͏͏r͏ed ͏im͏͏͏medi͏͏ate medical ͏att͏͏en͏t͏ion. The unfortunate injury f͏o͏rced ‘Re͏me͏m͏b͏͏͏e͏͏r the͏ ͏͏N͏ame’ to w͏it͏͏hdraw from his UFC 310 main event fight against Sh͏avkat R͏akhm͏͏onov. But while the UFC found Ian Machado Garry to save the Rakhmonov fight, Rizvan Kuniev was not that lucky.

UFC 310 has been cursed with several replacements thus far. Apart from Belal Muhammad and Martin Buday, even Tallison Teixeira pulled out of the December card due to an injury. As a result, it would be Kennedy Nzechukwu who would be facing Teixeira’s set opponent, Lukasz Brzeski, on the card. Now with only a few days remaining, Dana White would surely want no other fighter to pull out of the card now.

It’s a tough task for the replacements to take last-minute bouts – the reason why many decide not to volunteer, like in the case of Rizvan Kuniev. But for the select few who actually do end up taking the challenge, it becomes a herculean task. But if you do, you stand with a shot at glory. Remember Dan Ige stepping in on mere hours’ notice against Diego Lopes at UFC 303?

It’s still a high-risk high-reward move, especially when you have a lot at stake, like Ian Machado Garry, who so far has remained undefeated in his MMA career.

Dana White’s 310 replacement to make an uphill climb

It’s not often that fans get to see two top undefeated fighters in the UFC step into an octagon with everything to lose. But that is what UFC head honcho Dana White has in store for UFC 310, as 15-0-0 Ian Machado Garry goes one-on-one against 18-0-0 Shavkat Rakhmonov. This is a great opportunity for Garry, who ranks #7 in the welterweight rankings, to get himself into the top 5 by defeating #3 Rakhmonov. However, if he loses, he’ll get the first loss in his impeccable undefeated career so far.

But it seems like ‘The Future’ was actually prepared for this future fight, as he revealed on his YouTube channel. He said, “Honestly, I was pushing for the Shavkat fight. I was pushing for it. (It’s) undefeated vs. undefeated. We’ve trained together. We know how good we are. We both respect each other. He probably respects me a lot less than I respect him, which is OK… which is OK. That’s the way it should be at that point in our careers. But the truth is, I will take his 0, and I will take that belt.”

He further revealed that he was originally disappointed with his originally scheduled fight against Joaquin Buckley at the UFC ESPN 63 main event on Dec. 14, but when the UFC came calling for him to fight Rakhmonov, he couldn’t help but accept the fight. However, he will have to be careful against a fighter like Rakhmonov; after all, there is a reason why he is ranked #3 in the division. What do you think? Will Garry be able to grab a win? Let us know in the comments.