The UFC moved quickly to hand their featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski a new assignment after original opponent Max Holloway pulled out of their trilogy title battle scheduled for March.

Holloway, the former champ who has two successive losses on his record to the Australian champion, withdrew from the contest which was to top the UFC 272 card in March just days after being confirmed for the bout after suffering an undisclosed injury.

The move apparently prompted UFC officials to push back the other championship fight scheduled for the event, Sterling vs. Yan, to April and book the keenly-anticipated welterweight fight between Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington as the new UFC 272 headliner, while also giving the Korean Zombie, Chan Sung Jung, a more hefty training camp for what will be his second world title shot. News of the bout was first confirmed by Ariel Helwani.

Volkanovski is a perfect 10-0 in the UFC since debuting with the organisation in late 2016 and was last seen in action in September where he defeated Brian Ortega to cement his status as the pacesetter in the featherweight frame.

Korean Zombie, meanwhile, last fought in June where he scored a unanimous decision win against Dan Ige, while also defeating both Frankie Edgar and Renato Moicano via TKO in recent bouts. He holds a loss on his record to Ortega from October 2020.

The fight will be the South Korean’s second shot at gold during his UFC tenure after previously coming up short against then-champ Jose Aldo in April 2013, losing by strikes in the fourth round.

The updated UFC 273 card will also featured the bantamweight title rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan and is due to take place on April 9.