BREAKING | Demian Maia In for Santiago Ponzinibbio, Faces Kamaru Usman in UFC Chile Main Event

Disaster struck for UFC Chile the past week when it lost it’s main and co-main events.

The co-main was initially set to be Volkan Oezdemir vs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua but was then moved to be the UFC Hamburg main event after some issues with Oezdemir’s visa came to light.

The main event, on the other hand, was lost due to the good ol’ injury bug… South America’s own Santiago Ponzinibbio was set to headline against Kamaru Usman until he was forced out with a hand injury.

Now Usman remains and upon hearing the news he said he wouldn’t fight a replacement opponent that was unranked. Well now he wont.

As first reported by Ariel Helwani, the UFC has made it official. Usman will now take on former two-division title challenger and top 5 welterweight, Demian Maia.

New #UFCChile main event between @demianmaia & @USMAN84kg!

Who takes it? pic.twitter.com/BtEyDaazM2

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) April 26, 2018

Maia last fought back in October in a losing effort to next interim title challenger, Colby Covington. This was only Maia’s second loss in his last nine outings. The other being to the current champion, Tyron Woodley.

For Usman, he’s been dying for an opportunity at a top fighter, something that has so far eluded him in his career. But now he gets his shot. In fact, Usman has specifically wanted Maia and made it clear in the past as he even called him out in his post-fight interview after defeating Warlley Alves in 2016.

Who do you have taking the W in the new UFC Chile main event?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/26/2018.