Imagine the big boss, not your supervisor, calling you into his office and saying that he wants you to do a big project, but it has to be done quickly and at the highest caliber. You have no preparation and you have to get ready to work with material you may not have worked with before.
It happens in MMA all the time, especially in high level organizations like the UFC. Injuries happen in training, and so fighters getting ready for their big matchup occassionally have to call in sick. None of the guys ever wants to, but alot of the time it becomes a political issue (when the Nevada State Athletic Comission will not license them to fight with the injury) and an issue of performance (no one wants to put on a poor showing, because then they have to really start thinking about their next pay check).
It really sucks to be the fighter who has to call and tell UFC management that you cannot compete in your next matchup for whatever reason. It sucks because you know that you aren't going to have that nice shiny paycheck coming in and, if you're a new guy, you have to consider how long it's going to be before they call you again.
However, when a door closes for one guy, it becomes open for another. The issue then becomes whether or not the fighter is in shape, whether he's prepared for the opponent and whether he can make weight.
You see, a matchup never goes off a card because one fighter can't make it. If you can't fight in the UFC, they will find someone to fight instead. They have that kind of money and prestige.
Being the guy that gets the nod to come in and fight as a replacement has its perks. You get to fight in the biggest organization on the planet and you get to fight a top flight opponent, but at what cost.
When you get called up by the UFC as a replacement, it is almost always close to the fight date. At most, it gives a fighter two or three weeks to be ready for a fight against an opponent that has been training for six or eight, preparing his strength and cardio to go 15 minutes with an opponent that has been training as hard as he has.
Fighters, like every athlete, track their training schedules so that they peak at fight time. When you get called two weeks before, that's a pretty small peak.
That isn't to say that the fighter ever comes in as the pillsbury doh-boy (unless they always look like that), but they don't have the same level of conditioning that comes from training their ass off for ten weeks getting ready to tear an opponents head off.
The other major issue is weight. Almost all fighters, in this day and age, have to cut weight. If you don't have a good deal of notice, this can leave you drained for the actual fight.
The cost of being a replacement is high. You have to rush to be ready, but if it pays off, it pays off. Fighters who win as replacements almost always get called back, even if they have to take their opponent to a decision, because the management knows that they won, even though they weren't at 100%, and that's what makes the big boss excited.
When a fighter comes in as a replacement and puts on a great show, if he finishes his opponent or at least goes to war with his opponents (even in a loss) he can get alot of attention for himself.
Eddie Sanchez came in as a replacement for current UFC #1 heavyweight contender Gabe Gonzaga and made his UFC debut on short notice against Mario Neto. When Sanchez KO'd Neto the fans weren't all talking about it, but it was clear that the management was. After all, they gave Sanchez an incredible matchup for his second fight: asking him to fight Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic, the best striker in the heavyweight division, ranked #2 in the world at the time.
While Sanchez was destroyed by CroCop, he got the opportunity to fight a top flight fighter.
Being the replacement has it's disadvantages, but the management of organizations like the UFC know that. They don't expect the replacement to pull it off, but if it happens, they know that they need to call that guy back, they need to find out what he can do.
No one expects the replacement to win, but when he does, it pays.
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