Islam Makhachev has a new opponent for Saturday. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

Well, it’s official. Arman Tsarukyan is out. Renato Moicano is in. Islam Makhachev’s defense of the UFC lightweight title at UFC 311 in Inglewood, Calif. on Saturday night is still on, but it’s going to look significantly different from the original plan.

And ain’t that just so MMA? Never a dull moment in this sport. Even the journey to fight day can be its own little rollercoaster.

The tricky part is that, even though we’re talking about an injury to one guy, there’s a ripple effect that reaches out all across the UFC 311 fight card. For some, the ripple is a wave they may ride to unexpected good fortune. For others, it’s a devastating tsunami. Here’s a quick look at who wins, who loses, and who shrugs his shoulders and continues on unfazed by this wild shakeup.

Find you a short-notice replacement who can lecture you about 19th century macroeconomics. (Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC)

He was originally scheduled to fight Beneil Dariush on the undercard. A good matchup. One with some decent potential for career advancement. But it was a long way from a title shot.

Then Tsarukyan pulled out and Moicano’s phone rang with the opportunity of a lifetime. How about a shot at the title? And, at this point in his career, why wouldn’t he say yes?

Granted, it’s a tough job. To go from Dariush to the world’s best lightweight? And on top of that, to prepare for a three-round fight and then get dropped into a five-rounder? The odds are, to put it mildly, against him. And if Moicano goes in there and loses, well, there goes his lightweight winning streak — and with it, likely any hope of ever getting another UFC title shot.

But let’s be real. Moicano is 35. The lighter weight classes are not known to be kind to fighters much past that age. Even if it’s a longshot, hey, it’s still a shot. He has to take it and hope for the best. If nothing else, he gets some attaboys for his gameness and maybe a few more subscribers to his YouTube channel.

This is one big ooof right here. Tsarukyan didn’t get this title shot with his magnetic personality or passionate fan base. He got it by winning a bunch of fights. Even then, he was the least interesting and least discussed fighter at or near the top of the card.

Pulling out now probably ticks off the UFC, and without anyone demanding to see him rebooked for the next title shot, there’s no guarantee this opportunity will ever come again. What a cruel twist of fate for a worthy contender. Now he goes home without getting his crack at the belt, but he’s also not guaranteed a single cent in payment to compensate for the full fight camp he just put in, which was surely expensive as all hell.

In other words, he may have just angered the UFC, annoyed fans, gotten hurt and paid for the privilege.

I say again: Ooooof.

This is a cruel, cruel game. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

He didn’t do a single thing wrong. But with Moicano getting promoted to the main event, Dariush is left without a dance partner on Saturday night.

UFC CEO Dana White has said the company will help out Dariush with another fight (and hopefully some cash money) soon, but it’s still a big bummer of a situation for at least two reasons.

One is that he trained and prepared and peaked in time for this fight on this pay-per-view — not some lesser-known date to be named later.

The other is that, like it or not, the way this played out tells him where he stands with the UFC. Tsarukyan pulled out and it wasn’t his phone that rang first. That’s got to sting a little.

OK, so it might make his record of consecutive title defenses seem (at least for the moment) a little less impressive. Beating a last-minute replacement doesn’t carry the same weight as beating the top contender. And, of course, there’s always the chance that Moicano could shock the world and pull off the upset. If that happens, no one’s going to want to hear the sport’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter complain about having to adjust to a whole different style of opponent than the one he’d trained for.

But chances are he wins this fight. My guess is he does so pretty easily. And years from now, when people are reeling off his accomplishments, they’re no more likely to remember the details of this situation than they are to remember that his stablemate-turned-coach Khabib Nurmagomedov won the UFC title in a very similar scenario.

Just regular “No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world” stuff. (Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC)

That’s right. The old heads remember how Tony Ferguson fell out of UFC 223 at the last minute, leading to Al Iaquinta stepping up to fight Nurmagomedov for the vacant title. Of course Nurmagomedov won. We were neither surprised nor particularly impressed. He still went on to be a great lightweight champ —and you know what? Now no one even brings that up anymore.

It could easily be the same for Makhachev (depending on what happens Saturday and what comes next). And really, who better to adjust to a change of opponents than a guy who basically does the same thing every time he’s in the cage, regardless of who his opponent is?

One imagines Makhachev getting this call as he sat in his hotel room drinking Pedialyte and watching daytime TV with the boys. You can almost picture the slightest raise of an eyebrow, perhaps a shrug of the shoulders, followed by an untroubled nod.

So it’s Moicano now? Sure. Fine. Whatever. Smesh.

And so it goes.