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Nonsense...Islam was available to fight and if you paid any attention has stated on numerous occasions throughout last year it's UFC's job to offer him the fights...not for him to make them.
We both know the UFC gave him possible fight dates .I guarantee they tried to book him for Volks original Jan spot after their fight to try and plug that hole they created. Islam and his team will have said no and requested later even though Charles could have been good with the cut healing easily.
He has fought the same schedule for most of his career. He fights March/April and September/October. He has 3-4 month camps before each fight. The UFC have definitely contacted him. He will be on the March 2 Abu Dhabi card. He didn't want to fight prior, just like he took an extended break post Volk 1, because he faced adversity. He is going to fight 2x next year only.
We have UFC 297 in Canada with Strickland only fighting a couple weeks before Islam and having a 5 rounder as opposed to Islam taking no damage at all.
We have 298 which has Volk returning post KO vs Islam, before he has a fight booked.
Then 299 where we will most likely see Islam with O'malley and Vera booked.
If he isn't on any of those cards he doesn't fight until May at the earliest. The UFC definitely offerred him all 3 of those cards, because otherwise he doesn't fight till mid year with ramadan.