The world’s most popular MMA promotion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, returns to television screens this month. Fans are heavily anticipating the return of Conor McGregor; the Irish superstar has not been seen inside the Octagon since breaking his leg in July 2021. This year’s schedule indicates that McGregor is set to compete again, with a fight against Michael Chandler currently planned for the autumn. We’ve already witnessed some amazing fights in 2023 – the matchup between lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and featherweight prodigy Alexander Volkanovski was a particular highlight and saw the champion retain his title by a hairs breadth in a judge’s decision victory. The promotion also has a new heavyweight champion – Jon ‘the GOAT’ Jones moved up to the top weight division after a three-year break from the sport before delivering a shock submission victory in his first round against Ciryl Gane.
Martin Vetorri vs. Jared Cannonier (17th June)
There’s plenty more action to look forward to in the coming months, with online sportsbooks already offering UFC odds for many of the planned headline fights. The next ‘UFC Fight Night’ is scheduled to take place on Saturday 17th June at the UFC Apex Center in Las Vegas, Nevada:
M Bukauskas (8/15) vs Z Pauga (6/4)
R Lawrence (8/15) vs D Argueta (6/4)
T Bleda (2/5) vs G Fernandes (39/20)
Z Zhumagulov (7/5) vs F Bunes (4/7)
C Hernandez (1/1) vs D Bondar (4/5)
K Ho Kang (13/10) vs C Quinonez (8/13)
J Flick (39/20) vs A Costa (2/5)
M Salikov (8/15) vs N Dalby (6/4)
R Barcelos (4/9) vs M Johns (9/5)
N Motta (6/4) vs M Torres (8/15)
P Sabatini (1/2) vs L Almeida (31/20)
C L Duncan (4/6) vs A Petrosyan
(6/5) A Tsarukyan (1/11) vs J Silva (13/2)
M Vettori (17/20) vs J Cannonier (10/11)
The headline fight is scheduled to take place at 20:40 local time.
Josh Emmett vs. Ilia Topuria (24th June)
The UFC is hugely popular throughout the United States, but some states have a fascination with the sport that is best described as bordering on the obsessive! Florida is one such state, and residents of Jacksonville County are eagerly awaiting the return of the franchise and its trademark octagon on Saturday, 24th June. It’s probably no coincidence that the hype surrounding this event is verging on hysteria, as hometown hero Josh Emmett is participating in the headline contest against Iuri Topuria.
This will be a double-headline event, with a second highly-anticipated match-up between heavyweights Andrei Arlovski and Shamil Abdurakhimov also attracting widespread interest from fans. Throw in the planned lightweight contest between Beneil Dariush and Diego Ferreira along with Assuncao vs Johns bantamweight bout and this could well be one of the biggest nights on this year’s UFC calendar.
Sean Strickland vs. Abus Magomedov (1st July)
Returning to the Las Vegas APEX Center once again, the July 1st fight night is set to include a high-stakes middleweight matchup between No. 7 ranked contender Sean Strickland and Abus Magomedov. This will be US native Strickland’s fifth UFC main event and he’ll no doubt be hoping to regain a top five ranking by offering up a strong performance here. That won’t be easy, however, as rising German star Magomedov is hoping to secure the biggest win of his career at the upcoming fight night. Strickland is currently the favorite with most of the major sportsbooks, but the gap has been narrowing in recent days so there’s no way to tell how things might look a little closer to the night.
UFC 290 (Alexander Volkanovski vs. Yair Rodriguez) (8th July)
The bookmakers currently rank Vokanovski as a major favorite (1/5) to beat opponent Yair Rodriguez (33/10) at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas on 8th July 2023, but that doesn’t mean that a major upset is out of the question! Australian fighter Volkanovski will enter the fight with 25 wins and 2 losses to his name including 12 knockout s and 3 submissions, whilst Mexican Rodriguez has a little less experience at 15 wins and 3 losses with 5 knockouts and 4 submissions.
The difference in fight count is easy to explain, however, as Alexander is four years older than his opponent – this may not be too important considering he is still only 34 years of age, but Rodriguez five inch height advantage could be. Five inches sounds like a big gap, yet somehow Volanovski still has the advantage in terms of reach – even if it’s only by a single inch.
Volkanovski’s recent performance has been strong, although he did lose his last bout against Islam Makhachev at UFC 284. Rodriguez, on the other hand, enters this contest on the back of an impressive submission victory against Josh Emmett, also at UFC 284.
