Eduardo Chapolin replaces Jose Ochoa against Charles Johnson at UFC 330 this Saturday in Philadelphia. The fight is set for 130lbs at Xfinity Mobile Arena, and Chapolin is taking it on three days' notice.
For Charles Johnson, the late swap changes a bout that was originally lined up for the main card. He announced the change on Instagram, turning a scheduled flyweight meeting into a short-notice debut for Chapolin.
Johnson’s 2026 workload
This is Johnson’s fourth fight of 2026, and it comes after a close win over Bruno Silva and losses to Alex Perez and Asu Almabayev this year. That recent run pushed him out of the top 15 at flyweight, even though he remains the only man to beat current champion Joshua Van in the UFC.
Johnson also stopped Lon’er Kavanagh in Shanghai last year by knockout in the third round. That gives this replacement bout a different edge: he is not meeting a newcomer with no notable wins, but a fighter coming in with a résumé built across several levels.
Chapolin’s long route
Eduardo Henrique is better known as Eduardo Chapolin, a 30-year-old Brazilian flyweight who built a record of ten wins and one loss in the Brazilian MMA scene between 2015 and 2022. He signed with LFA in 2022, beat Leandro Soares for a title shot, then won the LFA flyweight championship at the end of 2023 with a fourth-round TKO over Cody Davis.
Chapolin later defended that belt with a first-round knockout over Igor Siqueira, entered the 33rd season of The Ultimate Fighter, and lost to Joseph Morales in his first fight while being coached by Daniel Cormier. He kept training with Cormier, then defended the LFA title for a second time last year in August by knocking out Devon Lozej in the first round.
Contender Series to UFC 330
Just over a week later, Chapolin took a short-notice fight on the Contender Series and beat An Tuan Ho by unanimous decision, but Dana White did not award him a UFC contract after that win. Now he gets the jump anyway, and the UFC debut arrives without the sort of runway most newcomers get.
The open issue is placement, not participation. Johnson vs. Chapolin was built for the main card, but the UFC has not said whether it stays there or moves to another slot, so the practical change for viewers is simple: the matchup is on, but the broadcast window is not settled.
