UFC 296 recently suffered a major blow after Giga Chikadze pulled out of his fight against Josh Emmett due to injury. Meanwhile, former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling teased a move to featherweight in the last UFC pay-per-view of the year. But Chikadze soon came out with an interesting proposition for Emmett.

Josh Emmett hasn’t had the best year in the UFC. He lost both of his fights in 2023 against Yair Rodriguez and Ilia Topuria. He was hoping to come back to his winning ways at UFC 296, but Giga Chikadze pulled out with an injury. However, another contender emerged to hint at moving to 145lbs on December 16th. Let’s take a look at what transpired.

Aljamain Sterling hints at a potential featherweight clash at UFC 296

After Giga Chikadze pulled out of the fight against Josh Emmett, ‘CC0’ took to social media. He announced ‘Ninja’s pullout while also asking other fighters if they’d like to step up to fight at UFC 296 in the T-Mobile Arena. Emmet wrote, “Giga’s Out. Who’s ready for December 16th?”

There were not many responses from fighters who accepted the challenge and it seemed like the fight was going to be canceled. But former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling hinted at a move to featherweight, which he also considered last month.

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‘Funk Master’ suffered his fourth UFC loss against Sean O’Malley at UFC 292, with his two-year title reign coming to an end. He had always wanted to be a double champion like a few other fighters in the UFC. Although that may not happen now, a move to featherweight may still be up on the cards.

Aljamain Sterling recently shared a tweet, hinting that he might go up to fight in the 145lbs division at UFC 296. He wrote, “I just weighed out at 166.6 lbs. #Just Saying #FeatherweightFunk.” This means that we can see Josh Emmett fight the former champion on December 16th. However, Giga Chikadze came out with an interesting offer for ‘CC0’. Let’s take a look at that front.

Giga Chikadze has a piece of “good” news for Josh Emmett

When ‘Ninja’ pulled out of UFC 296, there was no information regarding the reason behind that decision. It was simply stated that he suffered an injury. However, it was later revealed that he suffered a torn groin, which will make Giga Chikadze sit out for the rest of the month. But there is some good news from the Georgian fighter, as he presented an interesting offer to Josh Emmett.

Giga Chikadze revealed that he had been in discussions with his doctor following the pullout. The medical professional provided the timeline for his return, claiming that the Georgian fighter could make his comeback by the end of January next year. Chikadze even proposed to fight Josh Emmett when he returns. He said, “Good news! I’m at Dr.Michael Setareh, he’s saying end of January I can compete. If Emmet wants to wait a month…” It all depends on Emmett for now regarding what he’d like to choose.

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Josh Emmett has found himself in an interesting position. He has two options with one asking him to wait another month and the other option is to fight a new featherweight contender. It remains to be seen what Emmett decides to do. Since he had a lackluster year, he could decide to end the year on a high and fight Alajamin Sterling. But we do not know that yet.

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