Another 12 months of UFC motion is coming in direction of its finish, as followers come to phrases with Conor McGregor’s long-awaited return being delayed till 2024.
McGregor has not fought since breaking his leg in July 2021 and was resulting from struggle Michael Chandler this spring or summer time, however the bout continues to be with no date, location and weight class – all we all know is that it gained’t happen in 2023. Thankfully for the UFC, new stars have emerged elsewhere to maintain audiences engaged.
In one of many greatest fights of 2023, light-weight champion Islam Makhachev retained his title towards featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski in February – and later repeated the trick in October. In March, light-heavyweight icon Jon Jones moved as much as heavyweight after three years away, submitting Ciryl Gane to win the title vacated by Francis Ngannou, when the latter left the UFC. Next up for Jones was meant to be heavyweight ‘GOAT’ Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden, however an damage to Jones opened the door for Tom Aspinall to win the interim belt towards Sergei Pavlovich.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Leon Edwards retained the welterweight belt towards Kamaru Usman in London, seven months after taking the title from the “Nigerian Nightmare” with a surprising head kick. April then kicked off with Israel Adesanya lastly beating longtime rival Alex Pereira, the “Last Stylebender” knocking out the Brazilian to regain the middleweight belt that he misplaced to Pereira final 12 months. However, Adesanya would drop the title once more in September, struggling a surprising upset loss to Sean Strickland. Meanwhile, Pereira moved as much as light-heavyweight and gained the belt inside two fights.
Elsewhere, “Sugar” Sean O’Malley accomplished his swift rise by way of the bantamweight rankings by taking the belt from Aljamain Sterling in August, knocking out the Jamaican-American within the second spherical. There are a lot extra enormous fights to return, too. Here is each bout and occasion introduced by the UFC for the remaining weeks of the 12 months (playing cards topic to vary):
Saturday 18 November – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US
Main card
Brendan Allen vs Paul Craig (middleweight)
Michael Morales vs Jake Matthews (welterweight)
Chase Hooper vs Jordan Leavitt (light-weight)
Payton Albott vs Nick Aguirre (bantamweight)
Luana Pinheiro vs Amanda Ribas (girls’s strawweight)
Jonny Parsons vs Uros Medic (welterweight)
Prelims
Jonathan Pearce vs Joanderson Brito (featherweight)
Chad Anheliger vs Jose Johnson (bantamweight)
Cesar Almeida vs Christian Leroy Duncan (middleweight)
Mick Parkin vs Caoi Machado (heavyweight)
Jeka Saragih vs Lucas Alexander (featherweight)
Lucie Pudilova vs Ailin Perez (girls’s bantamweight)
Trey Ogden vs Nikolas Motta (light-weight)
Charles Johnson vs Rafael Estevam (flyweight)
Saturday 2 December – UFC Fight Night – Moody Center, Austin, US
Main card
Beneil Dariush vs Arman Tsarukyan (light-weight)
Dan Hooker vs Bobby Green (light-weight)
Rob Font vs Deiveson Figueiredo (bantamweight)
Sean Brady vs Kelvin Gastelum (welterweight)
Punahele Soriano vs Dustin Stoltzfus (middleweight)
Khalil Rountree Jr vs Azamat Murzakanov (light-heavyweight)
Prelims
Clay Guida vs Joaquim Silva (light-weight)
Miesha Tate vs Julia Avila (girls’s bantamweight)
Zach Reese vs Cody Brundage (middleweight)
Drakkar Klose vs Joe Solecki (light-weight)
Steve Garcia vs Melquizael Costa (featherweight)
Rodolfo Bellato vs Ihor Potieria (light-heavyweight)
Wellington Turman vs Jared Gooden (welterweight)
Veronica Hardy vs Jamey-Lyn Horth (girls’s flyweight)
Saturday 9 December – UFC Fight Night – Shanghai Indoor Arena, Shanghai, China
TBA vs TBA
Saturday 16 December – UFC 296 – T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, US
Main card
Leon Edwards (C) vs Colby Covington (welterweight title)
Alexandre Pantoja (C) vs Brandon Royval 2 (flyweight title)
Shavkat Rahkmonov vs Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson (welterweight)
Tony Ferguson vs Paddy Pimblett (light-weight)
Vicente Luque vs Ian Machado Garry (welterweight)
Josh Emmett vs Giga Chikadze (featherweight)
Prelims
Alonzo Menifield vs Dustin Jacoby (light-heavyweight)
Martin Buday vs Shamil Gaziev (heavyweight)
Irene Aldana vs Karol Rosa (girls’s bantamweight)
Randy Brown vs Muslim Salikhov (welterweight)
Tagir Ulanbekov vs Cody Durden (flyweight)
Casey O’Neill vs Ariane Lipski (girls’s flyweight)
Cody Garbrandt vs Brian Kelleher (bantamweight)
Saturday 20 January – UFC 297 – Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Canada
Sean Strickland (C) vs Dricus Du Plessis (middleweight title)
Saturday 17 February – UFC 298 – TBA
Alexander Volkanovski (C) vs Ilia Topuria (featherweight title)
Saturday 9 March – UFC 299 – TBA
Sean O’Malley (C) vs Marlon “Chito” Vera (bantamweight title)
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