Alessandro Costa To Replace Matt Schnell Against Steve Erceg at UFC 295

The UFC 295 lineup has undergone yet another change with two weeks to go before fight night.

Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight veteran Matt Schnell (16-7) had been scheduled to take on the surging Steve Erceg (10-1) on Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden. However, “Danger” will no longer be competing on the card due to undisclosed reasons and has been replaced by Brazilian prospect Alessandro Costa (13-3). The change in booking was first reported by Carlos Contreras Legaspi of ESPN Deportes on Saturday.

Schnell hasn’t fought since last December when he suffered a second-round knockout loss against Matheus Nicolau at UFC on ESPN 42. The Louisiana native has won only two of his last six, though all the losses have come against elite competition. Meanwhile, Erceg made his promotional debut in June on the back of an eight-fight winning streak, which the Australian extended to nine with a unanimous decision win over David Dvorak.

Erceg’s new opponent, Costa, made his promotional debut last December, suffering a Round 3 knockout loss against Amir Albazi. The debut loss also marked the end of a seven-fight win streak for the Brazilian. However, “Nono” has since bounced back with a second-round stoppage win over Jimmy Flick in June. Costa will be fighting alongside his Lobo Gym teammates Diego Lopes and Lupita Godinez at UFC 295. While Lopes takes on Pat Sabatini at featherweight, Godinez will trade leather with Tabatha Ricci in a strawweight matchup.

UFC 295 takes place Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. With Jon Jones out of his scheduled heavyweight bout with Stipe Miocic due to a pectoral tear, the card will now be headlined by the original co-main event clash for the vacant light heavyweight title between former champion Jiri Prochazka and former middleweight champ Alex Pereira. The new co-main event will be a short notice booking between English heavyweight contender Tom Aspinall and Russian knockout artist Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event for the interim heavyweight title. Per Dana White, Jones and his originally scheduled opponent, former heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic, will be booked for a later date once “Bones” is fully recovered and cleared to compete.