UFC announces massive contender fight for final PPV of the year

Fight announcements are piling up for the rest of the year, with three former title challengers and two “The Ultimate Fighter” winners joining a stacked pay-per-view event on December 7 in Las Vegas.

Two top contender fights fell through next week at UFC 307 and UFC 308, with Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov losing a potential title eliminator due to injury. On the bright side, the heavyweights have been given a new date with UFC 310, as have these featherweights.

No. 9-ranked Aljamain Sterling was scheduled to face No. 6-ranked Movsar Evloev in a week in Salt Lake City, but the former bantamweight champion ultimately had to withdraw due to an arm injury he sustained in training camp.

While Evloev was set to fight someone else on short notice, he will face “Funkmaster” upon his return, as the UFC announced Friday that they have been rescheduled for UFC 310 in December.

Russia's Evloev has won all eight of his UFC fights by decision and improved to 18-0 as a pro with a victory over Arnold Allen at UFC 297 in January. Evloev is knocking on the door for a title shot, but that's easier said than done as Alexander Volkanovski is likely to win featherweight champion Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway at UFC 308.

As for Sterling (24-4), the UFC veteran is a new player at 145 pounds, winning his divisional debut against Calvin Kattar at UFC 300. Previously, Sterling made a case for being the promotion's greatest bantamweight of all-time with three title defenses , his reign ended last August at the hands of Sean O'Malley.

“Race for the title!” Sterling responded to the reposting on Instagram.

At 35 years old, this may be Sterling's last and best chance to get into featherweight title contention, but we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.

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