UFC Reportedly Returning to City for UFC Fight Night After Nearly 10-Year Wait

After announcing a long-awaited return to Philadelphia last week, its looks like the UFC will also be visiting another major U.S city for the first time in nearly a decade.

Although there is a break coming up during the latter part of May, the UFC is currently in the midst of 13-week stretch of consecutive events that saw the world’s leading MMA promotion return to Winnipeg last weekend for a UFC Fight Night event headlined by Mike Malott and Gilbert Burns.

The UFC heads home to Las Vegas this Saturday and will make trips to Perth, Australia and Newark, NJ the next two weeks. After that, Arnold Allen and Melquizael Costa feature as the main event for UFC Vegas 117 before the UFC takes a week off ahead of its return to Macau at the end of May.

UFC Reportedly Books Oklahoma City Return For July 18

According to a new report from Ag Fight, the UFC plans to return to Oklahoma City for the first time since 2017 for a UFC Fight Night on July 18.

The UFC first made the trip to Oklahoma City in 2009 with UFC Fight Night 19, which saw Nate Diaz submit Melvin Guillard with a guillotine choke in the second round of the card’s headlining bout. The promotion most recently visited the city in 2017 and closed out with Kevin Lee’s first-round submission of the recently-retired Michael Chiesa.

Kevin Lee defeated Michael Chiesa in the main event of the UFC's last visit to Oklahoma City. | (Sean Pokorny-USA TODAY Sports)

A return to Oklahoma City was originally slated for 2020, but that event had to be scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oklahoma City UFC Card To Feature Veronica Hardy vs. Dione Barbosa

Along with the news that the UFC is headed back to Oklahoma City for the first time in close to 10 years, Ag Fight also reports that the card will feature a women’s flyweight bout between Veronica Hardy and Dione Barbosa.

Now closing in on the 10-year anniversary of her promotional debut, Hardy began her UFC career with three-straight losses before submitting Polyana Viana in just over a minute in 2019. The 30-year-old dropped her next fight before putting together three-straight victories, and she most recently
defeated Brogan Walker after Eduardo Moura snapped her winning run at UFC 309.

Veronica Hardy (red gloves) fights Brogan Walker (blue gloves) during UFC 320 at T-Mobile Arena. | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

A contract winner on the 2023 edition of Dana White’s Contender Series, Barbosa has alternated wins and losses since taking a unanimous decision over Ernesta Kareckaite in her UFC debut. The Brazilian already kicked her year off last month when she earned a majority decision against Melissa
Gatto, which put her back in the win column after coming up short against Karine Silva at UFC 319.

Karine Silva (red gloves) fights Dione Barbosa (blue gloves) during UFC 319 at United Center. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

The news that the UFC is heading back to Oklahoma City will certainly get local fans clamoring for more fight news, especially regarding what matchup will headline what should be a highly-anticipated UFC Fight Night event.

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