UFC president Dana White made a slew of announcements regarding the promotion’s UFC 291 & 292 events this summer.
The promotion is returning to Salt Lake City, Utah on July 29 with the UFC 291 card that will feature the resurrection of the BMF Championship for the main event.
Lightweights Dustin Poirier (29-7, 1 NC) and Justin Gaethje (24-4) will meet in a five-round rematch for the BMF title which serves as the main event of UFC 291.
Between the two of them, they have twenty-four UFC fight night bonuses.
The two in April 2018 on Fox where Poirier stopped Gaethje in the fourth round of their contest. Since that fight, Poirier has gone 6-2 and is coming off a submission win against Michael Chandler at UFC 281 last November. Gaethje was unsuccessful in both of his lightweight championship fights against Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2020 and losing to Charles Oliveira in May 2022, he is coming off a majority decision win against Rafael Fiziev earlier this year.
The main card of UFC 291 will also feature former UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira (7-2) moving up to light heavyweight and fighting former 205-pound champion Jan Blachowicz (29-9-1), a middleweight fight between Paulo Costa (14-2) and Ikram Aliskerov (14-1), a lightweight fight between Tony Ferguson (25-8) and Bobby Green (29-14-1, 1 NC), and a welterweight fight between Kevin Holland (24-9, 1 NC) and Michael Chiesa (18-6).
Ferguson was just in the news after rolling his truck in Hollywood, California, and faces a misdemeanor DUI charge. Ferguson has lost his last five fights going back to May 2020.
The prelims for UFC 291 will air on ABC with White adding Derrick Lewis (26-11, 1 NC) vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima (21-8-1) and Stephen Thompson (17-6-1) vs. Michel Pereira (28-11, 2 NC) being part of the broadcast.
The following month sees the UFC’s return to Boston at the TD Garden with UFC 292.
Two championship fights will take place on August 19 as 135-pound champion Aljamain Sterling (23-3) defends his title against Sean O’Malley (16-1, 1 NC). The fight was essentially set following Sterling’s recent win against Henry Cejudo with O’Malley being brought into the cage after the fight as the two traded words.
Strawweight champion Zhang Weili will defend her title against Amanda Lemos at UFC 292, as well. Weili (23-3) regained the championship by defeating Carla Esparza last November at UFC 281 to become a two-time champion in the weight class. Lemos (13-2-1) has won seven of her previous eight fights and finished Michelle Waterson and Marina Rodriguez in her last bouts.
