The UFC slate all the way up to UFC White House is now locked in.
On Thursday, UFC CEO Dana White announced a slew of new fights and events, covering the biggest fights for the UFC over the next three months, leading all the way up to UFC White House on June 14.
The biggest announcement from White was confirmation that UFC 328 will go down on May 9 at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, headlined by a middleweight title fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland. The card will also feature Alexander Volkov taking on Waldo Cortes-Acosta in the co-main event, Sean Brady vs. Joaquin Buckley in the featured bout, the rematch between Jan Blachowicz and Bogdan Guskov, and a lightweight contest between King Green and Jeremy Stephens.
A week later, the UFC will return to the APEX for UFC Vegas 117 on May 16, headlined by a featherweight fight between Arnold Allen and the streaking Melquizael Costa. Once viewed as a top prospect at 145 pounds, Allen has lost three of his past four fights, most recently dropping a decision to Jean Silva at UFC 324 in January. Costa, meanwhile, is on a six-fight win streak, finishing Dan Ige with a spinning back kick at UFC Houston in February.
Two weeks after UFC Vegas 117, the UFC returns to the Galaxy Arena in Macau for a Fight Night event headlined by a bantamweight banger between No. 5-ranked Song Yadong and former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo. Song is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Sean O’Malley at UFC 324, while Figueiredo also competed at the same event, dropping a decision to Umar Nurmagomedov.
One week later, the UFC will return to Las Vegas and the APEX for one final time before UFC White House, for UFC Vegas 118, headlined by a welterweight matchup between former champion Belal Muhammad and surging contender Gabriel Bonfim. Muhammad is currently riding a two-fight losing streak, most recently losing to Ian Machado Garry at UFC Qatar this past November, while Bonfim has won four in a row, most recently knocking out Randy Brown in the main event of UFC Vegas 111.
White also revealed that the promotion has found a replacement opponent for Beneil Dariush. Dariush was supposed to fight Manuel Torres at UFC 327 on April 11 in Miami, but earlier this week, Torres withdrew from the fight. Now, Dariush is moving up a week and heading to Australia, where he will fight Quillan Salkilld in the co-main event of UFC Perth. Dariush is currently ranked No. 12 in the lightweight division, and coming off a KO loss to Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 322, while Salkilld has won four in a row inside the octagon, most recently knocking out Jamie Mullarkey at UFC 325 earlier this year.
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