UFC Reveals Full Cards For Future ‘Fight Island’ Events
After announcing the main card for UFC 251, UFC President Dana White officially made “Fight Island” a reality.
Located on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, April 11 will start the festivities. Following that, there will be three other events (July 15, July 18, and July 25) scheduled to take place in the area. White recently revealed the full lineups for the events, including the rest of the UFC 251 card.
“I think this is going to be a really unique experience, not just for the fighters, but for us,” White stated, via MMA Junkie. “It’s going to be cool. It’s going to be something different. It’s never been done before, and however long this thing goes on, and however long it’s hard to get people in from other countries, we will have these fights at ‘Fight Island’ – Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.”
The three main events set for UFC 251 include three title fights. The main event will be Kamaru Usman defending his UFC Welterweight TItle against the surging Gilbert Burns. Alexander Volkanovski will defend his UFC Featherweight Title against the man he beat for it in Max Holloway, while Petr Yan will face former Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo for the vacant UFC Bantamweight Championship.
Calvin Kattar and Dan Ige will main event the July 15 card only a few days later. Frankie Edgar will make his bantamweight debut in the co-main event against Pedro Munhoz.
Following a night of controversy in which Deiveson Figueredo didn’t make weight, he will look for a redo when he faces Joseph Benavidez for the vacant UFC Flyweight Championship on July 18. The co-main event of that card will be Jack Hermansson v. Kelvin Gastelum.
Finally, July 25 will feature the return of Robert Whittaker against previously-named opponent Darren Till. The co-main event will have Mauricio “Shogun” Rua look for his third win against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. The card will also see the return of recently-retired Alexander Gustafsson coming back to face Fabricio Werdum.
Besides the fights, times and networks for the fight cards were announced. Only the last “Fight Island” event doesn’t have a set time.
Here is the full card for UFC 251 on July 11:
UFC 251 Main Card (ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET)
Kamaru Usman (c) v. Gilbert Burns – UFC Welterweight Championship
Alexander Volkanovski (c) v. Max Holloway II – UFC Featherweight Championship
Petr Yan v. Jose Aldo – vacant UFC Bantamweight Championship
Jessica Andrade v. Rose Namajunas II
UFC 251 Prelims (ESPN/ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
Volkan Oezdemir v. Jiri Prochazka
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos v. Muslim Salikhov
Makwan Amirkhani v. Danny Henry
Leonardo Santos v. Roman Bogatov
UFC 251 Early Prelims (ESPN/ESPN+, 6:15 p.m. ET)
Alexander Romanov v. Marcin Tybura
Raulian Paiva v. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
Vanessa Melo v. Karol Rosa
Martin Day v. Davey Grant
Here is the full card for UFC “Fight Island” on July 15:
Main Card (ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET)
Frankie Edgar v. Pedro Munoz
Carla Esparza v. Marina Rodriguez
Abdul Razak Alhassan v. Mounir Lazzez
Jared Gordon v. Chris Fishgold
Prelims (ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
Modestas Bukauskas vs. Vinicuis Moreira
Ricardo Ramos v. Lerone Murphy
John Phillips v. Dusko Todorovic
Tim Elliott v. Ryan Benoit
Diana Belbita v. Liana Jojua
Here is the full card for UFC “Fight Island” on July 18:
Main Card (ESPN+, 9 p.m. ET)
Joseph Benavidez v. Deiveson Figueredo II – vacant UFC Flyweight Title
Jack Hermansson v. Kelvin Gastelum
Marc Diakiese v. Rafael Fiziev
Ariane Lipski v. Luana Carolina
Alexandre Pantoja v. Askar Askarov
Prelims (ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)
Roman Dolidze v. Khadis Ibragimov
Grant Dawson v. Nad Narimani
Joe Duffy v. Joel Alvarez
Brett Johns v. Montel Jackson
Tagir Ulanbekov v. Alexander Doskalchuk
Davi Ramos v. Arman Tsarukyan
Carlos Felipe v. Serghei Spivac
Here is the full card for UFC “Fight Island” on July 25:
Main Card (TBD)
Robert Whittaker v. Darren Till
Mauricio Rua v. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira III
Alex Oliveira v. Peter Sobotta
Fabricio Werdum v. Alexander Gustafsson
Danny Roberts v. Nicolas Dalby
Prelims (TBD)
Tom Aspinall v. Jake Collier
Justin Tafa v. Raphael Pessoa
Movsar Evloev v. Mike Grundy
Bethe Correia v. Pannie Kianzad
Nathaniel Wood v. Umar Nurmagomedov
Ramazan Emeev v. Shavkat Rakhmonov