Alexander Volkanovski gets third different opponent for UFC Fight Night 121

The UFC found a way to keep Alexander Volkanovski on UFC Fight Night 121.

The promotion today announced that Volkanovski, after losing two previous opponents, is set to face newcomer Shane Young on Saturday in an FS1-televised featherweight bout, which takes place at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.

Volkanovski (15-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) originally was supposed to fight Jeremy Kennedy, but Kennedy dropped out last month because of a back injury. Humberto Bandenay replaced Kennedy, but Bandenay was forced to withdraw last week also because of injury, leaving Volkanovski’s status in limbo.

As it turns out, the UFC has found one final replacement in the 24-year-old Young (11-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) from New Zealand. He’ll make his UFC debut on a five-fight winning streak, each bout with a different promotion.

Australia’s Volkanovski ran his winning streak to 12 fights in June when he took a unanimous decision from Mizuto Hirota at UFC Fight Night 110 in New Zealand. His UFC debut came in November 2016 in his home country when he stopped Yusuke Kasuya with a second-round TKO in a lightweight fight. Of his 15 career wins, a dozen have come by stoppage.

With the booking, UFC Fight Night 121 lineup is set as follows:

MAIN CARD (FS1, 10 p.m. ET)

• Fabricio Werdum vs. Marcin Tybura
• Joanne Calderwood vs. Bec Rawlings
• Tim Means vs. Belal Muhammad
• Daniel Kelly vs. Elias Theodorou
• Alex Volkanovski vs. Shane Young

PRELIMINARY CARD (FS1, 8 p.m. ET)

• Ryan Benoit vs. Ashkan Mokhtarian
• Will Brooks vs. Nik Lentz
• Anthony Hamilton vs. Adam Wieczorek
• Damien Brown vs. Frank Camacho

PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 6:30 p.m. ET )

• Alex Chambers vs. Nadia Kassem
• Jenel Lausa vs. Eric Shelton
• Jake Matthews vs. Bojan Velickovic
• Rashad Coulter vs. Tai Tuivasa

Fore more on UFC Fight Night 121, check out the UFC Rumorssection of the site.