UFC Fight News: Including Diego Sanchez, ‘Shogun’ Rua & Anderson Silva
The fun UFC matchups keep coming. In the last few hours, there have been several big fight announcements. Including several for UFC 253, which over the weekend was officially moved back one week from September 19th to the 26th.
UFC 253
UFC 253, which will be headlined by Israel Adesanya defending his middleweight title against Paulo Costa, has seen several fighters from Australasia added to the card over night. The first being Jake Matthews, who will meet TUF season one winner Diego Sanchez, in a fun welterweight contest. Both men are coming off wins in February. ‘The Celtic Kid’ beat Emil Weber Meek at UFC Auckland, while ‘The Nightmare’ scored a disqualification win over Michel Pereira at UFC Rio Rancho.
New Zealand’s Shane Young is also set to return for the first time since February of 2019, when he beat Austin Arnett at UFC 234. He will take on Nate Landwehr in a featherweight clash, who after losing his promotional debut against Herbert Burns at UFC Raleigh, earned his first win inside the Octagon against Darren Elkins at UFC Florida.
Young’s teammate Brad Riddell has also been added to the card, against Alex Da Silva at lightweight. ‘Quake’ is 2-0 inside the Octagon, with wins over Jamie Mullarkey at UFC 243 and Magomed Mustafaev at UFC Auckland. ‘Leko’ also has two fights in the promotion. After losing his debut against Alexander Yakovlev at UFC St Petersburg, the 24 year old Brazilian rebounded and beat Rodrigo Vargas at UFC Montevideo.
With Kai Kara-France also fighting Brandon Royval, Adesanya has three of his City Kickboxing teammates on the card. Although the location hasn’t been confirmed yet, it’s likely to be on Fight Island on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.
Also added to UFC 253, Hakeem Dawodu and Zubaira Tukhugov will throw down in an exciting featherweight contest.
UFC 253 will also officially crown the new light heavyweight champion. After Jon Jones announced he was vacating the title yesterday, Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz will fight for the belt, most likely in the co-main event.
October
Youssef Zalal will be looking for his fourth win inside the Octagon in 2020, when he takes on Seungwoo Choi on October 10th in a featherweight encounter. After losing his first two fights in the promotion, the 28 year old South Korean earned his first win against Suman Mokhtarian last December at UFC Busan.
Also, as we reported over the weekend, ‘The Korean Zombie’ vs Brian Ortega has now been confirmed to headline the October 17th card.
November
Having won a contract only last week on Dana White’s Contender Series, Cory McKenna will make her full debut on November 14th against Kay Hansen, who recently won her promotional debut against Jinh Yu Frey at UFC Vegas 4. Both strawweights are just 21 years old.
One week later, ‘Shogun’ Rua and Paul Craig will run it back. The two light heavyweights fought to a split draw last November at UFC Sao Paulo. Both men have fought once since, scoring wins over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Gadzhimurad Antigulov, respectfully.
To end the month, as we reported earlier today, Derrick Lewis vs Curtis Blaydes will headline the November 28th card in a pivotal matchup in the heavyweight division.
Which new matchup are you most looking forward to?
UPDATE:
In the last couple of minutes, Brett Okamoto has announced that Anderson Silva is set to return on October 31st against Uriah Hall. ‘The Spider is coming off two losses against Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier. ‘Prime Time’ meanwhile, will be looking for a change of luck, after his last two opponents, ‘Jacare’ Souza and Yoel Romero, both pulled out close to the fight.
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