The UFC has confirmed two championship fights for UFC 276 as part of its annual International Fight Week event in Las Vegas, Nevada.
During Saturday’s broadcast, the promotion officially announced that UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya (22-1) will defend his title against Jared Cannonier (15-5).
Adesanya will attempt to defend his championship for the fifth time after recent wins against Marvin Vettori and Robert Whittaker over the past year.
Adesanya had a brief departure from the weight where he unsuccessfully challenged for the 205-pound title in March 2021 and lost by decision to then-champion Jan Blachowicz.
Cannonier, 38, has won five of his last six fights and is coming off victories against Kelvin Gastelum and Derek Brunson in his last fights. He has been competing in the UFC since 2015 where he competed at heavyweight and light heavyweight before making the move to 185-pounds in late 2018.
In the other championship fight scheduled for July 2, Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski (24-1) will defend against former 145-pound champion Max Holloway (23-6) in the third between the two.
Volkanovski holds decision wins over Holloway when they fought at UFC 245 in December 2019 and again at UFC 251 in July 2020.
Holloway has rebounded from the two losses to Volkanovski with decision wins against Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez.
Volkanovski is on a 21-fight winning streak and is undefeated since debuting in the UFC in November 2016. He is coming off successful title defenses against Brian Ortega and Chan Sung Jung over the past eight months.
The UFC 276 card will take place on Saturday, July 2nd at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on the same night when WWE will stage its Money in the Bank at Allegiant Stadium in the same city.
Below are all of the fights UFC has announced for the card:
UFC 276 is going to be INCREDIBLE 🤩 pic.twitter.com/WPORntJQIa
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) May 8, 2022
