Three Fighters Ruled Out Of UFC 280: Charles Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev

MMA fans may witness a couple of fights lesser than expected at UFC 280 where Brazil’s Charles Oliveira and Dagestan’s Islam Makhachev will lock horns for the vacant lightweight championship.

The event will go down in Abu Dhabi on October 22.

The fighters who have been ruled out of the event are Slim Trabelsi, Abdelwahab and Jamie Mullarkey.

Trabelsi was forced to pull out due to an alleged conflict between managers Fernand Lopez and Ali Abdelaziz. Trabelsi was just signed in for the heavyweight division but was released before he could make his UFC debut due to contractual issues with French promotion ARES FC. The 5-0 MMA star was scheduled to fight 12-7 Parker Porter.

In an interview with Sport en France, Trablesi claimed:

“To fight in Ares, we have to be managed by Fernand Lopez. Initially, he said to me, you have a four-fight contract in Ares and if the UFC calls you, I’ll let you go to the UFC. I trusted him and I signed the contract and when UFC called me, he tried to block me with the Ares contract.”

“Ali signed me to UFC and I was to fight on Oct. 22 in Abu Dhabi and Fernand blocked me. He called Ali asking for €90,000 to let me go to UFC. Ali offered to give him a percentage of the money I was going to earn in my UFC fights and even with that, he refused.”

The Trabelsi vs Porter fight has now been scrapped off since Trabelsi was already a replacement fighter for Abdelwahab, who had withdrawn due to an undisclosed reason.

As for Australia’s Mullarkey, he was set to face Dagestan’s lightweight Magomed Mustafaev (14-3), but an undisclosed injury has forced him to pull out as well.

The UFC is now looking for Mullarkey’s replacement.