It’s been a wild ride, and now in the wake of UFC 230’s main event announcement, the MMA world has been very, very upset to say the least.
That’s not to say that everyone is upset though, those being the members of the flyweight division in particular.
The fight that was announced as the long-awaited UFC 230 Madison Square Garden main event on November 3 was the vacant flyweight title bout pitting former bantamweight title challenger Valentina Shevchenko vs finalist for season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter and No. 4 ranked flyweight contender, Sijara Eubanks.
After winning her way through TUF 26, Eubanks made it to the finals where she was set to take on her fellow underdog that season, Nicco Montano. Unfortunately for Eubanks, complications with her weight cut led to her hospitalization and removal from the fight. Roxanne Modaferri, who she defeated in the semi-finals to get the shot would end up taking her place.
Since then, Eubanks has gotten back to making the 125-pound mark as she did so in her UFC Utica bout with the former Invicta FC bantamweight champ and then No. 3 ranked flyweight, Lauren Murphy, who Eubanks defeated via dominant unanimous decision.
Regardless, the UFC has been implementing backup plans for big fights lately in the cases of potential falling outs. For most recent examples we have had Alexander Volkov on standby for Daniel Cormier vs Stipe Miocic at UFC 226, Thiago Santos for Israel Adesanya vs Brad Tavares at the TUF 27 Finale and Kamaru Usman for Tyron Woodley vs Darren Till at UFC 228.
Funny enough, at UFC 228 it was the co-main event between Montano and Shevchenko that would end up needing a standby fighter as Montano would suffer a similar fate to Eubanks did for the TUF 26 Finale thus forcing the cancelation of that fight and the stripping of her title.
The UFC wisely is planning ahead now this time as Ariel Helwani is reporting that No. 3 ranked flyweight contender Katlyn Chookagian is being looked at as the standby fighter for Shevchenko vs Eubanks.
Katlyn Chookagian (11-1) is in talks to be the backup fighter for the Shevchenko-Eubanks fight at 230 should something happen to either fighter, per sources. Worth noting, she beat Sijara Eubanks in 2015.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 3, 2018
Katlyn Chookagian (11-1) is in talks to be the backup fighter for the Shevchenko-Eubanks fight at 230 should something happen to either fighter, per sources. Worth noting, she beat Sijara Eubanks in 2015.
The 29-year old Chookagian has been near flawless in her career to this point as her only loss comes to Liz Carmouche in a bantamweight encounter. Stylistically, Chookagian is about as tough a matchup for anyone and some believe she should actually be getting this shot over Eubanks instead.
As Helwani mentions, the Renzo Gracie Combat Team product Chookagian does have a victory over Eubanks albeit in 2015.
Chookagian is 4-1 in the UFC with all of her wins coming over name opponents in Irene Aldana, Mara Romero Borella, former bantamweight title challenger Alexis Davis, and the previously mentioned Murphy.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/3/2018