Following one of the most successful and engrossing years in the history of the UFC, the mixed martial arts promotion will look to keep building in 2022.
2021 saw Conor McGregor fight twice, marking his most active year since 2016. The Irishman lost to Dustin Poirier in each outing, suffering a horrific broken leg in the most recent, but he is targeting a summer return to the Octagon.
Elsewhere, newer stars like Israel Adesanya, Khamzat Chimaev and Sean O’Malley are looking to further enhance their legacies and profiles, while featherweight queen Amanda Nunes will surely seek to regain her bantamweight belt after losing it to Julianna Pena in a major upset in December.
Islam Makhachev continues to pursue his goal of becoming lightweight champion to follow in the footsteps of his close friend and cornerman Khabib Nurmagomedov, while the men’s bantamweight division is set to see a unification bout between its interim champion Petr Yan and official title holder Aljamain Sterling – with the heavyweight title having been unified in January when Francis Ngannou outpointed Ciryl Gane.
Here are all the UFC events and fights announced for the coming weeks and months:
Saturday 7 May – UFC 274 – Footprint Center, Phoenix
Main card
Charles Oliveira (C) vs Justin Gaethje (lightweight title)
Rose Namajunas (C) vs Carla Esparza 2 (women’s strawweight title)
Michael Chandler vs Tony Ferguson (lightweight)
Donald Cerrone vs Joe Lauzon (lightweight)
Mauricio Rua vs Ovince Saint Preux (light heavyweight)
Prelims
Randy Brown vs Khaos Williams (welterweight)
Macy Chiasson vs Norma Dumont (women’s featherweight)
Brandon Royval vs Matt Schnell (flyweight)
Blagoy Ivanov vs Marcos Rogerio de Lima (heavyweight)
Early prelims
Francisco Trinaldo vs Danny Roberts (welterweight)
Tracy Cortez vs Melissa Gatto (women’s flyweight)
Kleidison Rodrigues vs CJ Vergara (flyweight)
Ariane Carnelossi vs Loopy Godinez (women’s strawweight)
Journey Newson vs Fernie Garcie (bantamweight)
Saturday 11 June – UFC 275 – Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore
Glover Teixeira (C) vs Jiri Prochazka (light heavyweight title)
Valentina Shevchenko (C) vs Taila Santos (women’s flyweight title)
Brendan Allen vs Jacob Malkoun (middleweight)
Kyung Ho Kang vs Saimon Oliveira (bantamweight)
Liang Na vs Silvana Juarez (women’s strawweight)
