Another year of UFC action has passed its midway point, as fans come to terms with Conor McGregor’s long-awaited return being delayed until 2024.
McGregor has not fought since breaking his leg in July 2021 and was due to fight Michael Chandler this spring or summer, but the bout is still without a date, location and weight class – all we know is that it won’t take place in 2023. Thankfully for the UFC, new stars have emerged elsewhere to keep audiences engaged.
In one of the biggest fights of 2023, lightweight champion Islam Makhachev retained his title against featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski in February – and later repeated the trick in October. In March, light-heavyweight icon Jon Jones moved up to 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 is heavyweight ‘GOAT’ Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden in November.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Leon Edwards retained the welterweight belt against Kamaru Usman in London, seven months after taking the title from the “Nigerian Nightmare” with a stunning head kick. April then kicked off with Israel Adesanya finally beating longtime rival Alex Pereira, the “Last Stylebender” knocking out the Brazilian to regain the middleweight belt that he lost to Pereira last year. However, Adesanya would drop the title again in September, suffering a stunning upset loss to Sean Strickland.
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Meanwhile, “Sugar” Sean O’Malley completed his swift rise through the bantamweight rankings by taking the belt from Aljamain Sterling in August, knocking out the Jamaican-American in the second round. There are plenty more huge fights to come, too. Here is every bout and event announced by the UFC for the coming weeks and months (cards subject to change):
Saturday 11 November – UFC 295 – Madison Square Garden, New York City, US
Main card
Jiri Prochazka vs Alex Pereira (vacant light-heavyweight title)
Sergei Pavlovich vs Tom Aspinall (interim heavyweight title)
Jessica Andrade vs Mackenzie Dern (women’s strawweight)
Matt Frevola vs Benoit Saint-Denis (lightweight)
Diego Lopes vs Pat Sabatini (featherweight)
Prelims
Steve Erceg vs Alessandro Costa (flyweight)
Tabatha Ricci vs Loopy Godinez (women’s strawweight)
Mateusz Rebecki vs Roosevelt Roberts (lightweight)
Nazim Sadykhov vs Viacheslav Borshchev (lightweight)
Early prelims
Jared Gordon vs Mark Madsen (lightweight)
John Castaneda vs Kyung Ho Kang (bantamweight)
Joshua Van vs Kevin Borjas (flyweight)
Dennis Buzukja vs Jamall Emmers (featherweight)
Saturday 18 November – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US
Scotland’s Paul Craig is looking to make a run towards the middleweight title— (Getty Images)
Brendan Allen vs Paul Craig (middleweight)
Michael Morales vs Jake Matthews (welterweight)
Chase Hooper vs Jordan Leavitt (lightweight)
Payton Albott vs Nick Aguirre (bantamweight)
Luana Pinheiro vs Amanda Ribas (women’s strawweight)
Jonny Parsons vs Uros Medic (welterweight)
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 Jesse Butler (featherweight)
Lucie Pudilova vs Ailin Perez (women’s bantamweight)
Trey Ogden vs Nikolas Motta (lightweight)
Charles Johnson vs Rafael Estevam (flyweight)
Saturday 2 December – UFC Fight Night – Moody Center, Austin, US
Beneil Dariush vs Arman Tsarukyan (lightweight)
Dan Hooker vs Bobby Green (lightweight)
Saturday 16 December – UFC 296 – T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, US
Leon Edwards is the UFC welterweight champion (Kieran Cleeves/PA)— (PA Wire)
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 (lightweight)
Vicente Luque vs Ian Machado Garry (welterweight)
Josh Emmett vs Giga Chikadze (featherweight)
Alonzo Menifield vs Dustin Jacoby (light-heavyweight)
Martin Buday vs Shamil Gaziev (heavyweight)
Irene Aldana vs Karol Rosa (women’s bantamweight)
Randy Brown vs Muslim Salikhov (welterweight)
Tagir Ulanbekov vs Cody Durden (flyweight)
Casey O’Neill vs Ariane Lipski (women’s flyweight)
Cody Garbrandt vs Brian Kelleher (bantamweight)
Saturday 20 January – UFC 297 – TBA, Canada
A tearful Sean Strickland was crowned UFC middleweight champion in September— (Getty Images)
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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