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 (cards subject to change):
Saturday 17 September – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Main card
Cory Sandhagen vs Song Yadong (bantamweight)
Giga Chikadze vs Sodiq Yusuff (featherweight)
Chidi Njokuani vs Gregory Rodrigues (middleweight)
Andre Fili vs Bill Algeo (featherweight)
Tanner Boser vs Rodrigo Nascimento Ferreira (heavyweight)
Prelims
Anthony Hernandez vs Marc-Andre Barriault (middleweight)
Damon Jackson vs Pat Sabatini (featherweight)
Trevin Giles vs Louis Cosce (welterweight)
Joe Pyfer vs Alen Amedovski (middleweight)
Aspen Ladd vs Sara McMann (women’s bantamweight)
Denise Gomes vs Loma Lookboonmee (women’s strawweight)
Trey Ogden vs Daniel Zellhuber (lightweight)
Mariya Agapova vs Gillian Robertson (women’s flyweight)
Tony Gravely vs Javid Basharat (bantamweight)
Nikolas Motta vs Cameron VanCamp (lightweight)
Saturday 1 October – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Mackenzie Dern vs Yan Xiaonan (women’s strawweight)
Cody Garbrandt vs Rani Yahya (bantamweight)
Randy Brown vs Francisco Trinaldo (welterweight)
Raoni Barcelos vs Trevin Jones (bantamweight)
John Castaneda vs Daniel Santos (bantamweight)
Saturday 15 October – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
TBC vs TBC
Viviane Araujo vs Alexa Grasso (women’s flyweight)
Misha Cirkunov vs Alonzo Menifield (light heavyweight)
Raphael Assuncao vs Victor Henry (bantamweight)
Tatsuro Taira vs CJ Vergara (flyweight)
Saturday 22 October – UFC 280 – Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi
Charles Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev (vacant lightweight title)
Aljamain Sterling (C) vs TJ Dillashaw (bantamweight title)
Petr Yan vs Sean O’Malley (bantamweight)
Beneil Dariush vs Mateusz Gamrot (lightweight)
Katlyn Chookagian vs Manon Fiorot (women’s flyweight)
Belal Muhammad vs Sean Brady (welterweight)
Makhmud Muradov vs Caio Borralho (middleweight)
Volkan Oezdemir vs Nikita Krylov (light heavyweight)
Marina Rodriguez vs Amanda Lemos (women’s strawweight)
Zubaira Tukhugov vs Lucas Almeida (featherweight)
Saturday 29 October – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Calvin Kattar vs Arnold Allen (featherweight)
Saturday 12 November – UFC 281 – Madison Square Garden, New York City
Israel Adesanya (C) vs Alex Pereira (middleweight title)
Carla Esparza (C) vs Weili Zhang (women’s strawweight title)
Dustin Poirier vs Michael Chandler (lightweight)
Matt Frevola vs Ottman Azaitar (lightweight)
Erin Blanchfield vs Molly McCann (women’s flyweight)
Brad Riddell vs Renato Moicano (lightweight)
Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs Silvan Gomez Juarez (women’s strawweight)
Dominick Reyes vs Ryan Spann (light heavyweight)
Michael Trizano vs Seungwoo Choi (featherweight)
