All eyes are on Saturday night’s UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, but MMA fans still have questions about the UFC 310 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

time on Thursday press event Ahead of UFC 309, UFC CEO Dana White was asked about the main event and he responded: “We’ll announce it tomorrow. It’ll be good.”

Initially, the main event appeared to see UFC heavyweight champion Belal Mohammed defend his title for the first time against undefeated Uzbekistan challenger Shavkat Rahkmonov. However, a bone infection in Mohammed’s toe forced him out.

The UFC has attempted to find a replacement for Muhammad, but no announcement has been made yet. Former heavyweight champion Kamaru Usman said on December 7, “too early“For him to take on this challenge.

There aren’t many options for Rahkmonov to face in the league; Most of the other players are already in the top 10, have been recently active, or are returning from injury. Sean Brady, Jack Della Maddalena and Colby Covington are the only names that make sense.

We’ll see if this bears fruit; but even if Rahkmonov can get one of these guys to step up quickly, it won’t be for a title unless the UFC decides to create another interim title situation. This could be an early move depending on how long Muhammad is expected to be sidelined. If the UFC wants to make an interim title shot, they could pull Ian Machado Garry from his fight against Joaquin Buckley at UFC Tampa and put him next to Rahkmonov.

Some smaller outlets report that this is the case.

If Rahkmonov remains on the card against another top heavyweight, his fight still looks likely to be relegated to the co-main event, with the UFC men’s flyweight championship between titleholder Alexandre Pantoja and Japanese challenger Kai Asakura headlining. .

The UFC generally tries to avoid flyweight titles whenever possible, and that’s the expectation here. Many of the UFC’s other titles are tied to situations that would make it difficult or impossible to move up from this division to the top spot.

Jon Jones defends his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic on Saturday. Tom Aspinall is the interim champion and reserve, but it’s hard to imagine who the UFC could get him into a fight with or why he would risk injury or loss when he knows his undisputed title shot is just around the corner.

Alex Pereira has come to the rescue twice this year for the injury-ravaged Cards. We were told that the fight between him and Magomed Ankalaev will not be used as the best performer of UFC 310.

White says Dricus Du Plessis’ next defense will take place in South Africa Jim Rome He said on Thursday that he wants Khamzat Chimaev to fight for the title in the United States in 2025. This fight doesn’t have to be against Du Plessis, although that would be the preferred matchup.

Islam Makhachev is expected to defend his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan in January.

Ilia Topuria fought in October and the next defense of his featherweight title will take place in Spain, according to White.

Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov look likely. However, it seems unlikely that the former will come forward anytime soon for his first title defense, especially against a tough opponent like Nurmagomedov.

Julianna Pena vs. Kayla Harrison will likely be the next women’s bantamweight title fight unless Amanda Nunes returns. Both Pena and Harrison fought in October, so this seems unlikely.

The next challenger for the women’s flyweight title is Valentina Shevchenko vs. Manon Fiorot, but it’s a title fight that looks set to be the co-main event of a major pay-per-view.

Finally, there is Weili Zhang, who can defend her title against Virna Jandiroba. The Brazilian veteran was scheduled to face No. 1 contender Tatiana Suarez at UFC 310, but Suarez withdrew. Like Shevchenko-Fiorot, this doesn’t appear to be a fight worthy of a main event slot, but at this point the UFC may retain damage control on this card.

Luckily, according to White, we’ll find out on Friday.