You want fight news? You got it.
On Thursday, UFC CEO Dana White dropped perhaps the year’s biggest announcement, a string of main event bookings filling up the cards all the way to the scheduled Freedom Fights 250 event at the White House in Washington, D.C. The biggest and most anticipated of the announced bouts is undeniably Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland, a Middleweight title fight and grudge match that will headline UFC 328 in Newark, New Jersey.
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In addition to that 185-pound clash, White formally announced three other UFC main events. First, White confirmed that surging Featherweight prospect Melquizael Costa will throw down with veteran contender Arnold Allen on May 16 inside the Meta Apex. It’s a well-deserved step up for Costa, who has won six straight fights in impressive fashion, but it’s also nice to see Allen booked again quickly after his competitive loss to Jean Silva.
On May 30, UFC will return to Macau, China with an event headlined by Bantamweight knockout artist Song Yadong versus former Flyweight kingpin Deiveson Figueiredo. Yadong came up short by inches in his most recent appearance against Sean O’Malley at UFC 324, while Figueiredo was soundly outwrestled by Umar Nurmagomedov in his most recent showing.
Given that Figueiredo is 38 years old and has lost three of his lsat four, it’s something of a must-win fight for the Brazilian great.
The final main event revealed is Belal Muhammad vs. Gabriel Bonfim for June 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Muhammad, the former Welterweight champion, lost competitive decisions in his most recent two appearances to Jack Della Maddalena and Ian Garry. Those defeats snapped a lengthy unbeaten streak, whereas Bonfim is on the rise. The Brazilian has won four in a row, including a highlight reel KO over Randy Brown in his first-ever main event booking last November.
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Here’s a complete list of the fights announced:
UFC Perth on May 2nd
Beneil Dariush vs. Quillan SalkilldUFC 328 on May 9
Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland
Alexander Volkov vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov 2
King Green vs. Jeremy StephensUFC Vegas 117 on May 16
Arnold Allen vs. Melquizael CostaUFC Macau on May 30
Song Yadong vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
Mingyang Zhang vs. Alonzo Menifield
Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tallison TeixeiraUFC Vegas 118 on Jun. 6
Belal Muhammad vs. Gabriel Bonfim
Just in case anyone skimmed over that list and missed a key detail … Jeremy Stephens is back?!? And he’s fighting King Green? It’s still 2017 in my heart, and the UFC matchmakers must agree. This is all a lot to take in, so let us know what you think about all these matchups in the comment section below!
