How’s this for a downgrade? Or upgrade depending on the perspective.
After Kai Kara-France declared himself out of his UFC 293 bout against [autotag]Manel Kape[/autotag] on Monday, [autotag]Felipe dos Santos[/autotag] has been tabbed to replace him at the Sept. 9 pay-per-view event from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
Two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed the booking to MMA Junkie after an initial report from MMA Fighting. The people requested anonymity since the UFC hasn’t made an official announcement.
The new matchup means Kape, who’s No. 10 in the official UFC flyweight rankings, goes from meeting a fighter ranked ahead of him (Kara-France is No. 5) to welcoming a promotional newcomer. Dos Santos was slated to compete Tuesday at Dana White’s Contender Series 59, but his opponent, Luciano Pereira, didn’t weigh in because of medical issues. Now dos Santos, 22, gets a golden opportunity to make an immediate splash jumping into the biggest fight of his life on less than three weeks’ notice.
Dos Santos is 7-0 in his professional career, most recently winning a unanimous decision vs. Hugo Paiva under the LFA banner last November.
Kape (18-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC) is riding three straight wins after a rocky 0-2 start to his UFC tenure. After joining the UFC in February 2021, he dropped fights against Alexandre Pantoja and Matheus Nicolau. Since then, he’s beaten Ode Osbourne, Zhalgas Zhumagulov, and David Dvorak.
With the change, here is the updated UFC 293 lineup:
MAIN CARD (ESPN+ pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
- Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland
- Tai Tuivasa vs. Alexander Volkov
- Felipe dos Santos vs. Manel Kape
- Austen Lane vs. Justin Tafa
- Tyson Pedro vs. Anton Turkalj
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPNNews, ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
- Da Woon Jung vs. Carlos Ulberg
- Jack Jenkins vs. Chepe Mariscal
- John Makdessi vs. Jamie Mullarkey
PRELIMINARY CARD, (ESPNNews, ESPN+, 6:30 p.m. ET)
- Blood Diamond vs. Charlie Radtke
- Gabriel Miranda vs. Shane Young
- Viviane Araujo vs. Casey O’Neill
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.