News - UFC legend claims UFC 323 was set to be headlined by Alexander Volkanovski before a major U-turn.

Cejudo claims Volkanovski was set to headline UFC 323\n\nLongtime British contender Lerone Murphy then scored a Knockout of the Year win over Aaron Pico at UFC 319, which had Volkanovski calling for a fight against ‘The Miracle’.\n\nAnd according to former UFC double champion Henry Cejudo, a fight between Volkanovski and Murphy was set to headline UFC 323, which was the final PPV of the year, before the promotion made a major U-turn.\n\n“I think they’re saving a lot of the good fights because the person that was originally supposed to headline that (event) was Volkanovski and Lerone Murphy, from what I heard from little birdies,” Cejudo said in a recent episode of the Pound 4 Pound Podcast.\n\n“I think they’re gonna hold down on some of the bigger stars, I don’t even know if it’s that, I just think it’s that they like the fact that Merab (Dvalishvili) is willing to fight pretty often, Dana (White) said he loves that. And that took Volkanovski and Lerone from the card.”\n\nUFC boss Dana White took to Instagram Live last week to announce that bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili will be making a short turnaround to make history at UFC 323, defending his title in a rematch against Petr Yan.