The UFC 295 lineup has undergone yet another change with two weeks
to go before fight night.
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Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight veteran Matt
Schnell (16-7) had been scheduled to take on the surging
Steve
Erceg (10-1) on Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden. However,
“Danger” will no longer be competing on the card due to undisclosed
reasons and has been replaced by Brazilian prospect Alessandro
Costa (13-3). The change in booking was first reported by Carlos Contreras Legaspi of ESPN
Deportes on Saturday.
Schnell hasn’t fought since last December when he suffered a
second-round knockout loss against Matheus
Nicolau at UFC on ESPN 42. The Louisiana native has won only
two of his last six, though all the losses have come against elite
competition. Meanwhile, Erceg made his promotional debut in June on
the back of an eight-fight winning streak, which the Australian
extended to nine with a unanimous decision win over David
Dvorak.
Erceg’s new opponent, Costa, made his promotional debut last
December, suffering a Round 3 knockout loss against Amir Albazi.
The debut loss also marked the end of a seven-fight win streak for
the Brazilian. However, “Nono” has since bounced back with a
second-round stoppage win over Jimmy Flick
in June. Costa will be fighting alongside his Lobo Gym teammates
Diego
Lopes and Lupita
Godinez at UFC 295. While Lopes takes on Pat
Sabatini at featherweight, Godinez will trade leather with
Tabatha
Ricci in a strawweight matchup.
UFC 295 takes place Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York
City. With Jon Jones out
of his scheduled heavyweight bout with Stipe
Miocic due to a pectoral tear, the card will now be headlined
by the original co-main event clash for the vacant light
heavyweight title between former champion Jiri
Prochazka and former middleweight champ Alex
Pereira. The new co-main event will be a short notice booking
between English heavyweight contender Tom
Aspinall and Russian knockout artist Sergei
Pavlovich in the co-main event for the interim heavyweight
title. Per Dana White, Jones and his originally scheduled opponent,
former heavyweight champ Stipe
Miocic, will be booked for a later date once “Bones” is fully
recovered and cleared to compete.