One other 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 because of battle Michael Chandler this spring or summer season, however the bout continues to be and not using a date, location and weight class – all we all know is that it gained’t happen in 2023. Fortunately 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 in opposition to 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. Subsequent up for Jones was meant to be heavyweight ‘GOAT’ Stipe Miocic at Madison Sq. Backyard, however an damage to Jones opened the door for Tom Aspinall to win the interim belt in opposition to Sergei Pavlovich.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Leon Edwards retained the welterweight belt in opposition to 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 “Final Stylebender” knocking out the Brazilian to regain the middleweight belt that he misplaced to Pereira final 12 months. Nonetheless, Adesanya would drop the title once more in September, struggling a surprising upset loss to Sean Strickland. In the meantime, Pereira moved as much as light-heavyweight and gained the belt inside two fights.
Elsewhere, “Sugar” Sean O’Malley accomplished his swift rise by means of the bantamweight rankings by taking the belt from Aljamain Sterling in August, knocking out the Jamaican-American within the second spherical. There are loads extra big fights to return, too. Right here is each bout and occasion introduced by the UFC for the remaining weeks of the 12 months (playing cards topic to alter):
Saturday 2 December – UFC Battle Evening – Moody Heart, Austin, US
Predominant card
Beneil Dariush vs Arman Tsarukyan (light-weight)
Jalin Turner vs Bobby Inexperienced (light-weight)
Rob Font vs Deiveson Figueiredo (bantamweight)
Sean Brady vs Kelvin Gastelum (welterweight)
Punahele Soriano vs Dustin Stoltzfus (middleweight)
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 Battle Evening – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US
Music Yadong vs Chris Gutierrez (bantamweight)
Anthony Smith vs Khalil Rountree Jr (light-heavyweight)
Saturday 16 December – UFC 296 – T-Cell Area, Las Vegas, US
Predominant 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)
Prelims
Josh Emmett vs Giga Chikadze (featherweight)
Irene Aldana vs Karol Rosa (girls’s bantamweight)
Cody Garbrandt vs Brian Kelleher (bantamweight)
Casey O’Neill vs Ariane Lipski (girls’s flyweight)
Early prelims
Alonzo Menifield vs Dustin Jacoby (light-heavyweight)
Martin Buday vs Shamil Gaziev (heavyweight)
Tagir Ulanbekov vs Cody Durden (flyweight)
Randy Brown vs Muslim Salikhov (welterweight)
Saturday 13 January – UFC Battle Evening – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US
Magomed Ankalaev vs Johnny Walker 2 (light-heavyweight)
Saturday 20 January – UFC 297 – Scotiabank Area, Toronto, Canada
Sean Strickland (C) vs Dricus Du Plessis (middleweight title)
Raquel Pennington vs Mayra Bueno Silva (vacant girls’s bantamweight title)
Jan Blachowicz vs Aleksandar Rakic 2 (light-heavyweight)
Arnold Allen vs Movsar Evloev (featherweight)
Charles Jourdain vs Sean Woodson (featherweight)
Neil Magny vs Mike Malott (welterweight)
Serhiy Sidey vs Ramon Taveras (bantamweight)
Dominick Reyes vs Carlos Ulberg (light-heavyweight)
Chris Curtis vs Marc-Andre Barriault (middleweight)
Brad Katona vs Garrett Armfield (bantamweight)
Gillian Robertson vs Polyana Viana (girls’s strawweight)
Yohan Lainesse vs Sam Patterson (welterweight)
Malcolm Gordon vs Jimmy Flick (flyweight)
Saturday 10 February – UFC Battle Evening – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US
Jack Hermansson vs Joe Pyfer (middleweight)
Saturday 17 February – UFC 298 – Honda Heart, Anaheim, US
Alexander Volkanovski (C) vs Ilia Topuria (featherweight title)
Saturday 9 March – UFC 299 – TBA
Sean O’Malley (C) vs Marlon “Chito” Vera 2 (bantamweight title)
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