UFC CEO Dana White gave MMA fans an early Christmas present on Thursday evening.
Taking to his social media account, White revealed several new fight announcements for cards in the first quarter as well as UFC 300. Some of the fights have already been known while others are brand new fights.
Fight announcements:
Feb 17th, #UFC298
Feb 24th, #UFCMexico
March 30th, #UFCAtlanticCity
April 13th, #UFC300 pic.twitter.com/vcJYI3rekl— danawhite (@danawhite) December 22, 2023
First off, for UFC 298 on Feb. 17, Dana White announced that Robert Whittaker will take on Paulo Costa at middleweight. Also, Ian Machado Garry will take on Geoff Neal on the card instead of UFC 299, which was originally the case.
Whittaker is coming off a TKO loss to Dricus Du Plessis and is ranked third at middleweight. Costa, meanwhile, hasn’t fought since August of 2022 when he beat Luke Rockhold by decision. These two were supposed to fight earlier this year but the Brazilian had a contract dispute with the UFC.
Dana White then announced that UFC Mexico City will be headlined by Brandon Moreno vs. Amir Albazi, which was already announced. The co-main event of the card is a five-round featherweight rematch between Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez.
Ortega and Rodriguez fought in July of 2022 when ‘T-City’ suffered a shoulder injury in the first round. He hasn’t fought since then, while Rodriguez became the interim champ but then lost by TKO to Alexander Volkanovski for the belt.
Next, Dana White revealed Erin Blanchfield will take on Manon Fiorot at UFC Atlantic City on March 30, which will likely be a number one contender fight for the women’s flyweight division. Blanchfield is from New Jersey and is 12-1 as a pro and coming off a win over Talia Santos. Fiorot, meanwhile, is coming off a decision win over Rose Namajunas.
The final event UFC CEO Dana White announced fights for is UFC 300 which is set to take place on April 13 in Las Vegas.
First, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka will take on Aleksandar Rakic in a crucial bout at 205lbs. The two had agreed to fight each other on social media and now the bout has been made official.
Next, former bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling will move up to featherweight to face Calvin Kattar in an intriguing matchup. Finally, Bo Nickal will return to take on Cody Brundage at middleweight.
