UFC CEO Dana White Announces Three Huge Title Fights
UFC CEO Dana White has announced three huge title fights that will take place during the first quarter of 2024.
Combat sports fans are currently looking ahead to a pair of title fights that will feature at the top of UFC 295 this weekend, and even with UFC 296 still on the horizon next month White’s recent announcement will have fans eagerly anticipating the start of next year.
Presumably set to take place at UFC 297 in Toronto, the middleweight title fight between Strickland and Du Plessis may be the most surprising of the three matchups White revealed.
Strickland upset Israel Adesanya to win the middleweight belt at UFC 293.
(Jasmin Frank/USA TODAY Sports)
White stated ahead of UFC 294 that the winner of Khamzat Chimaev vs. Kamaru Usman would be the first challenger for Strickland's middleweight belt, but apparently the promotion has elected to give Du Plessis his shot at UFC gold following an upset win over former champion Robert Whittaker.
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Ilia Topuria’s dominant win over Josh Emmett in June appeared to set him up as the next challenger for Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight title once “The Great” stopped Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290.
Volkanovski is coming off his second bid to claim the UFC lightweight title.
(Giuseppe Cacace/AFP)
The timeline for that matchup was understandably thrown into question after Volkanovski stepped in on short notice to fight Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 and was knocked out in the first round, but after that loss the Australian indicated he wanted to get back into action quickly and will now defend his title against Topuria in February.
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Sean O’Malley’s second-round victory over Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 was one of the biggest combat sports moments of the year, and “Sugar” had no shortage of options for his first title defense considering how stacked the bantamweight division is.
O'Malley will try to avenge his previous loss to Vera in March.
(Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports)
Marlon Vera also picked up a win at UFC 292 in Boston when he took a decision over Pedro Munhoz. “Chito” handed O’Malley the only loss of his career at UFC 252 back in 2020, and now the Ecuadorian will have a chance to claim the bantamweight belt when the pair meet again in March.
There's been quite a bit of speculation this week regarding UFC title fights for 2024, and now that White has announced these three bouts fans can start getting excited about the promotion's schedule for next year.
UFC Schedule: Every Event & Fight Happening in 2024
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