4 Replacement Fights for the UFC 310 Main Event After Belal Muhammad's Injury

It wouldn't be the holiday season without a gift return, would it?

The UFC's December pay-per-view show from Las Vegas took a hit on Thursday when the champion slated to defend in its main event, new welterweight king Belal Muhammad, announced on social media that he won't make it because of a bone infection in his foot.

That means UFC 310 is a show without a headlining fight at the moment, and it's never a particularly easy task for the mixed martial arts conglomerate to have to change things up on the fly, particularly when the first strikes are set to be thrown in exactly 36 days.

The B/R combat team is happy to offer its services and we got to business assembling a list of four alternatives, set up as fights that could be and probably will be replacements, alongside what we wish would happen and a selection that'd break the internet.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

If there's a UFC go-to for short-notice situations, it's Alex Pereira.

The Brazilian menace has assembled a Hall of Fame resume in just 10 octagonal fights, winning and losing the middleweight title across a five-month stretch bridging late 2022 and early 2023 before rising to light heavyweight and getting a belt in his second fight.

So he's a legit big name. And he's got quick turnaround street cred thanks to a summertime appearance at UFC 303 that went off without a hitch in late June, just two weeks after a would-be duel between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler was scrubbed.

He squashed former 205-pound champ Jiří Procházka in that one, only two months and 16 days after defeating another former claimant in Jamahal Hill, and has come back once more since to defeat Khalil Rountree Jr. atop the bill at UFC 307.

And he's got a ready, willing and able foil this time in No. 1 contender Magomed Ankalaev, who appeared at UFC 308 just last week and defeated Aleksandar Rakic by largely non-violent unanimous decision in what was billed as a would-be title eliminator.

If the company wants to go a familiar route, this would be an easy call to make.

Dana White's a guy who's not afraid to take big swings.

So while we concede the UFC czar could go with Pereira-Ankalaev or either of the other two choices we're about to suggest, it'd be far easier to forecast him simply staying on the bill.

That'd mean elevating the scheduled co-main, which matches incumbent flyweight Alexandre Pantoja and octagonal newbie Kai Asakura, who's never appeared on a UFC poster but arrives less than a year after winning a bantamweight belt in the Rizin promotion.

He's 30 years old (as of Halloween), has been a pro for more than 12 years, and comes in with five wins in his last six fights, including three finishes.

Pantoja is defending for the third time in 17 months since he lifted the 125-pound title from Brandon Moreno by split decision at UFC 290. He's gone the 25-minute route in two straight fights since, besting Brandon Royval and Steve Erceg with unanimous verdicts.

It was already a card for the hardcore set as opposed to the casual fan, and dropping the "co-" prefix to make it the main event wouldn't do much to change the vibe.

Few would argue that Shavkat Rakhmonov warrants a title shot.

The 30-year-old Kazakh is 18-0 with 18 straight finishes as a pro, is ranked third at welterweight behind ex-champs Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards, and is coming off an impressive second-round choke-out of popular veteran Stephen Thompson.

He was slated to oppose Muhammad in the now-scuttled main event in Las Vegas, so fairness dictates he should be rewarded for preparation and given a shot at a high-profile bout (perhaps carrying interim title billing) without altering the UFC 310 marquee.

But that means he needs an opponent.

Neither Usman nor Edwards would move the needle much thanks to their title-fight histories, so we decided to skip down the rankings list a few more slots to No. 7, where another unbeaten commodity, chatty Irish export Ian Machado Garry, just happens to reside.

Garry labels himself as "The Future," covets the sort of popularity gained by the likes of Conor McGregor, and hasn't been afraid to make high-profile call-outs after previous wins.

It just so happens that Rakhmonov's name was in his mouth after a win over Geoff Neal earlier this year and Garry added another winning layer with a decision over rising opponent Michael Page at UFC 303 in June.

He's bratty. He's ambitious. And he's good.

So if we get what we want without blowing out the WiFi, this is the fight we'd choose.

Last but not least, let's swing for the fences, shall we?

Dricus Du Plessis has become one of the company's most recognizable fighters thanks to defeats of Robert Whittaker, Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya in his last three bouts.

The Strickland win yielded a title belt at middleweight and the win over Adesanya, a two-time champion at 185 pounds, legitimized it to the point where the South African has climbed to a No. 6 position on the much-coveted pound-for-pound list.

He's penciled in for a match with Strickland in the near future, but another result from UFC 308 last weekend in the Middle East may have put that one on the permanent back burner.

Khamzat Chimaev pursued ex-champ Whittaker from across the cage, got him down and into a vulnerable position, then squeezed his jaw to the point of dislodging teeth in recording a first-round stoppage on the main show in Abu Dhabi.

The official time was 3:34 of the first round and it took roughly that long for the suggestions to come that it was Chimaev, now ranked third after a 10-spot spike, who'd make a much more intriguing match than Strickland, who escaped with a split decision over retread Paulo Costa at UFC 302 in June.

It's hardly hyperbolic considering "Borz" fought twice in 10 days during the COVID-addled summer of 2020. In fact, the biggest stumbling block may be whether Du Plessis is willing to take on such a threat with something less than a full camp.

For the sake of the show, we hope he says yes.