Charles Oliveira explains decision to withdraw from UFC 294 main ...

Charles Oliveira will be replaced by Alexander Volkanovski in a lightweight title bout at UFC 294 on Oct. 21, and he explained on social media that the cut suffered in his final practice in Brazil was too “deep” to risk not being 100 percent on fight night.

The UFC officially announced the switch Tuesday night, and Oliveira used his Instagram page to address the incident.

“Some of you already know that I’m out of the upcoming UFC Abu Dhabi card,” Oliveira said. “In my final training in Brazil before traveling, I clashed heads in training and suffered a deep cut that needed eight or nine stitches, something like that, I don’t know for sure. It’s a cut too deep to be able to fight, to recover in such a short time and be able to put on a great fight.”

Oliveira said the decision to leave the UFC 294 main event was made by his team alongside the UFC brass to make sure he can “be 100 percent ready for the next one.” It’s still unclear if Oliveira will be given a shot at the belt once he recovers from the injury.

“Everybody knows about the importance of this fight,” Oliveira said. “It’s not just a fight, it’s a title fight, so there were great things involved. We didn’t want to go there unprepared. I know many people will judge, many people will talk, but it’s an important fight for us and we couldn’t be there at our 80 percent, we had to be 120 percent ready for it.”

UFC 294 will take place at the Etihad Arena and air live on pay-per-view. The co-main event is also in jeopardy after UFC CEO Dana White revealed the company is looking for a new opponent for Khamzat Chimaev after Paulo Costa revealed he had elbow surgery weeks before the event.