UFC 305 seems to have a hit even before the final card was announced, as the Australian star Jack Della Maddalena seems to have been ruled out of the card. The event is expected to happen on August 18th at RAC Arena, Perth Australia, and Israel Adesanya is likely to headline the event, as he will be making a comeback after his loss against Sean Strickland last year. However, even before the announcements, the community was struck with some harsh news and this might rattle Dana White.

The event was supposed to be a blockbuster, as it would have been UFC’s comeback to Australia after UFC 293. However, Jack Della Maddalena gave some bad news even before his fight was scheduled.

Jack Della Maddalena out of UFC 305 race

The welterweight fighter last fought against Gilbert Burns back in UFC 299. Maddalena emerged victorious in his endeavor against the Brazilian. However, this seems to have hindered his clash on UFC 305. During his fight against Burns, the 27-year-old broke his arm in the very first round but continued ramming the Brazilian until he achieved victory in the third round. The victory helped him to maintain a clean win at the UFC as the Australian is yet to be defeated by anyone in the promotion.

Well, that might be a good-bad fight for him. He might have won the battle, but seems to have lost the war. Della Maddalena was supposed to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov at Perth, but it won’t happen now. The Australian recently updated that he won’t be able to recover till August as he now has an infection after his surgery.

The fighter took to his Instagram handle to add a photo of himself in medical gear and wrote, “Had surgery on my arm 1 week after (UFC) 299. 10 days later my wound had begun splitting which was indicative of infection. Went in for surgery 2 as believed to be infection present, bone cleaned, plate replaced, stayed in the hospital for 9 days on IV antibiotics then moved to oral antibiotics.” 

He further added, “Thought the infection was under control, the wound itself had a couple of abscesses pop up over a 5-week period which had been cut and drained which had bacteria present. I had further surgery yesterday to remove infected tissue and unfortunately some infected bone.”

Della Maddalena has been officially ruled out of the Perth event and a new challenge is in front of Dana White. What would be his next course of action?

What’s next after Maddalena’s departure?

A new challenge is in front of the promotion, but this time Dana White and the UFC have enough time to tend to themselves. Jack Della Maddalena is out of the race against the Shavkat Rakhmonov. So what’s next for UFC 305? Well, Dana White has two options now: Either cancel the match altogether or choose another opponent for the 29-year-old. Now you might argue if there’s no Maddalena then people would not watch Rakhmonov’s fight, but one must understand that ‘Nomad’ has a good global reach and his fighting style drags the fans to watch him.

If White decides to choose a new opponent for Rakhmonov, then who can be picked? Shavkat Rakhmonov currently ranks 3rd in the welterweight ranking list and fighting anyone below the top 5 would be a bad thing for the Kazakh warrior. The most probable answer here is either Colby Covington or Kamaru Usman. Why you ask? Well, both the fighters have enough time to prepare for their fights and they need a win desperately.

UFC might pull in Sean Brady as well, but who knows? Dana White has enough time to decide who is going to fight who but what’s your prediction? State your thoughts in the comments below.