UFC 310, scheduled for December 7 in Las Vegas, is taking place without a main event.

Halloween morning, the news broke Belal Muhammad, UFC welterweight champion had suffered from a bone infection, forcing him to withdraw Since his first title defense against Chavkat Rakhmonov.

Rakhmonov hopes to stay on the card, but against whom is the main question. Talks of Alex Pereira returning to the Octagon to save the event and defend his light heavyweight title have been dismissed, according to a report from MMAFighting.com Friday.

Over the past hour, another potential name has been ruled out. The promotion confirmed the main event of UFC Tampa, which will see the return of Ian Machado Garry against Joaquin Buckley in a five-round fight on December 14. Garry is undefeated in the promotion and is categorical to continue to showcase Ireland as a leading country for future UFC champions.

As of press time, it’s hard to imagine what the UFC will do next. December pay-per-views have been a promotional staple for years. Dating back to the beginning of the ESPN+ relationship, UFC 245 and UFC 296 have featured welterweight title fights in Las Vegas, making them a fairly common event.

There are few options for browsing the list of men’s champions. The flyweight title fight between Alexandre Pantoja and promotional newcomer Kai Asakura could be elevated to main event status, but the buzz just wouldn’t be the same for casual audiences.

Although highly unlikely, there is one fight that the MMA masses don’t recognize as a possibility: a rematch between Dricus du Plessis and Sean Strickland.

The UFC pushed hard for an event to be held in South Africa, which is well documented. However, du Plessis has shown himself willing to face Strickland again when the time is right. Khamzat Chimaev just beat Robert Whittaker, putting him in a strong position to face the potential winner, or for the belt itself.

The story between du Plessis and Strickland is already built. They had a close fight in January, awarding the championship to du Plessis. He then went on and finished Israel Adesanya seven months later, largely unscathed.

If both are healthy, this is the steal to make. But the only people who can do that are the UFC executives. Now the MMA community will have to wait.

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