The news of Jon Jones suffering a pectoral injury sent the MMA community into a frenzy. This forced him to withdraw from his highly-anticipated heavyweight title clash against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295. For Dana White, it was a gut-wrenching blow. It threatened to derail one of the promotion’s biggest events of the year at Madison Square Garden.
As the dust settled, Dana White found himself in a race against time to salvage the pay-per-view card. Enter Hunter Campbell, the UFC CBO and the man tasked with averting disaster. The Roku documentary Fight Inc: Inside the UFC provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse. The UFC CEO delivered a heroic line after fixing up the new schedule.
Don’t bowl the stress on me. I love it. I eat that sh*t for breakfast. I really do. I love it.
Dana White via Fight Inc: Inside the UFC
The docuseries showed White and Campbell’s frantic efforts to piece together a makeshift main event. After all, losing the marquee matchup between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic would leave even the most seasoned promoter feeling uneasy. Despite losing the main event, the replacement fight and new main event brought out the best of UFC 295.
The new UFC 295 card was finally revealed to the public. The co-main event between Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira was upgraded to the main event, with the vacant title on the line. Dominant heavyweight contenders Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall fought for the interim title in the co-main event. However, it was not the main event the UFC had in mind initially.
UFC brass had a lightweight title clash in mind to save UFC 295
The UFC found itself in a predicament after Jon Jones’ pectoral injury. They had to scramble to salvage one of its biggest pay-per-view events. Dana White and his team sought to fill the void left by the marquee heavyweight title fight. One solution emerged from Hunter Campbell: a rematch for the title between the Brazilian submission ace and the Dagestani grappler.
Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira was considered for UFC 295 (via MMA Fighting)Charles Oliveira had pulled out of UFC 294 against Islam Makhachev due to a severe cut around the eye. Then-featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski came in as a short-notice replacement. Hunter Campbell had suggested the idea that the two lightweights could be the main event of UFC 295.
I can see if Islam and Oliveira want to go. Islam took no f*****g damage. I don’t think he took a single strike and Oliveira is still in shape.
Hunter Campbell via Fight Inc: Inside the UFC
Footage from the #InsideTheUFC series details the fights they attempted to make for #UFC295 following Jon Jones injury‼️
Hunter Campbell wanted to put together Islam VS Charles Oliveira a month after Islam fought Volk in Abu Dhabi but Oliveira declined.#MMA pic.twitter.com/QUJ8Xwacuj
— MMA Casuals (@MMA_CASUALS_) June 9, 2024
Makhachev had knocked out Volkanovski in the first round of their fight and took no damage himself. The hope was that both lightweights were at their peak and would agree to the fight. However, Oliveira’s management refused the fight citing the reason that he needed to recover from that deep cut completely.
