With the conclusion of UFC Fight Night 192: Smith vs Spann, here are the upcoming UFC events for the year 2021
UFC Fight Night 192 just concluded, and there are still several important UFC events lined up for the year.
The UFC began the year with a bang, hosting three massive events including UFC 257 inside a week. Due to the Coronavirus restrictions at that time, they were held in Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
9 months have already gone by. With a couple of months still remaining, the UFC has four major events in UFC 266, UFC 267, UFC 268 and UFC 269.
Here are the upcoming 2021 UFC events in chronological order:
UFC 266
UFC 266 will be taking place on the 25th of September, 2021 at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
It has one of the most stacked cards of the year. The event is headlined by a featherweight title bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega. The battle of the coaches has a lot of bad blood coming with it.
The co-main event features a women’s flyweight title fight between Valentina Shevchenko and Lauren Murphy. Murphy, coming in as a super-massive underdog will be looking forward to upsetting the Kyrgyzstani-Peruvian, who is always on a rampage.
Besides, the main and the co-main event, Nick Diaz makes his return to the Octagon after almost 7 years. He will be taking on Robbie Lawler in a five-round non-title match – a rematch 17 years in the making.
UFC Fight Night: Santos vs Walker
On the 2nd of October, 2021 the UFC will be returning to its Apex Facility in Enterprise, Nevada.
UFC Fight Night 193 (UFC Vegas 38) will be headlined by a light-heavyweight clash between Brazilians Thiago Santos and Johnny Walker.
A middleweight bout between Misha Cirkunov and Krzysztof Jotko is expected to be the co-main event. Valentina Shevchenko’s sister Antonina features in the main card as well. She will be taking on Casey O’Neill.
UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Rodriguez
UFC Fight Night 194 (UFC Vegas 39) will be taking place on the 9th of October at UFC Apex, the week after UFC Fight Night: Santos vs Walker.
The event will be headlined by an all-important women’s strawweight bout between Mackenzie Dern and Marina Rodriguez. Yet another all Brazilian clash. The match will prove to be crucial in the title challenge of the indomitable Dern.
A flyweight bout between Tim Elliott and Matheus Nicolau is expected to be the co-main event.
UFC Fight Night: Vieira vs Tate
On the 16th of October at UFC Apex, Miesha Tate will be returning to the Octagon to face Ketlen Vieira.
She recently came out of retirement and earned a big win over the outgoing Marion Reneau. This is the only confirmed big fight in the card.
UFC Fight Night: Costa vs Vettori
Paulo Costa will be returning to the Octagon after more than a year. He last suffered a brutal TKO loss against Israel Adesanya at UFC 253.
He will be taking on Marvin Vettori, on the 23rd of October at the UFC Apex. Other fights are still in the making. The card hasn’t taken shape yet.
UFC 267
The UFC will be heading to the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi for UFC 267.
The card is headlined by a light-heavyweight clash between champ Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira – a fight that was originally set to take place at UFC 266.
A bantamweight title fight rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan is set to be the co-main event.
Islam Makhachev features in the card as well. He will be taking on former lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos.
UFC 268
Back-to-back major events. UFC 268 will take place on the 6th of November at the Madison Square Garden in New York.
Another insanely stacked card. It is headlined by a welterweight title fight rematch between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington. The pair previously met at UFC 245, in one of the greatest welterweight spectacles of all time.
The co-main event is a women’s strawweight title fight between Rose Namajunas and Zhang Weili.
Justin Gaethje makes his return as well. He will be taking on Michael Chandler.
UFC 269
The venue for UFC 269 is undecided. It is expected to take place on the 11th of December, with a lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier, set to headline the event.
A trilogy fight between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno has also been planned for this event.
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