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 4 November – UFC Fight Night – Ibirapuera Arena, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Derrick Lewis, right, steps in for Curtis Blaydes against Jailton Almeida— (USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con)
Main card
Jailton Almeida vs Derrick Lewis (heavyweight)
Gabriel Bonfim vs Nicolas Dalby (welterweight)
Rodrigo Nascimento vs Don’Tale Mayes (heavyweight)
Caio Borralho vs Nursulton Ruziboev (middleweight)
Rodolfo Vieira vs Armen Petrosyan (middleweight)
Ismael Bonfim vs Vinc Pichel (lightweight)
Prelims
Elves Brener vs Esteban Ribovics (lightweight)
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs Rinat Fakhretdinov (welterweight)
Vitor Petrino vs Modestas Bukauskas (light-heavyweight)
Angela Hill vs Denise Gomes (women’s strawweight)
Lucas Alexander vs David Onama (featherweight)
Eduarda Moura vs So Yul Kim (women’s strawweight)
Saturday 11 November – UFC 295 – Madison Square Garden, New York City, US
Jon Jones (C) vs Stipe Miocic (heavyweight title)
Jiri Prochazka vs Alex Pereira (vacant light-heavyweight title)
Diego Lopes vs Pat Sabatini (featherweight)
Jessica Andrade vs Mackenzie Dern (women’s strawweight)
Matt Schnell vs Steve Erceg (flyweight)
Tabatha Ricci vs Loopy Godinez (women’s strawweight)
Jared Gordon vs Mark Madsen (lightweight)
Joshua Van vs Kevin Borjas (flyweight)
Saturday 18 November – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US
Brendan Allen vs Paul Craig (middleweight)
Payton Albott vs Nick Aguirre (bantamweight)
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)
Casey O’Neill vs Ariane Lipski (women’s flyweight)
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