RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – JUNE 22: UFC CEO Dana White is seen on the published throughout the UFC Combat … [+]
Zuffa LLC through Getty Photographs
Is UFC 307 a greater card than Noche UFC? After Dana White introduced the principle card for the occasion headed for Salt Lake Metropolis on October 5, lots of people within the MMA neighborhood could say sure, it’s.
White took to social media on Friday morning and shared a stellar lineup of fights which will make the UFC 307 pay-per-view second solely to UFC 300, which is total greatness–not less than on paper.
The primary occasion will characteristic the reigning UFC mild heavyweight champion defending his title towards Khalil Rountree. Raquel Pennington will defend her ladies’s bantamweight title towards Julianna Pena within the co-main occasion.
The primary card additionally contains a pivotal ladies’s bantamweight battle between Ketlen Viera and Kayla Harrison, with the winner getting a shot on the winner of Pennington-Pena for the championship.
In different fundamental card fights, undefeated featherweight Movsar Evloev faces former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, a middleweight conflict between Roman Dolidze and Kevin Holland, MMA icon Jose Aldo faces Mario Bautista and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson vs. Joaquin Buckley.
Right here is White’s announcement.
Here’s a have a look at the entire fights anticipated to be part of the UFC 307 card, together with non-main-card bouts. There are 10 confirmed fights, and we may see not less than two extra added over the following few weeks.
- (c) Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. – UFC Mild Heavyweight Championship
- (c) Racquel Pennington vs. Julianna Peña – UFC Girls’s Bantamweight Championship
- Movsar Evloev vs. Aljamain Sterling – Featherweight
- José Aldo vs. Mario Bautista – Males’s Bantamweight
- Kayla Harrison vs. Ketlen Vieira – Girls’s Bantamweight
- M. Rodriguez vs. Iasmin Lucindo – Strawweight
- Ihor Potieria vs. César Almeida – Middleweight
- Carla Esparza vs. Tecia Pennington – Strawweight
- Roman Dolidze vs. Kevin Holland – Middleweight
- Stephen Thompson vs. Joaquin Buckley – Welterweight
From a reputation recognition and title-implication standpoint, you may be hard-pressed to discover a extra stacked pay-per-view card.
Pereira is without doubt one of the greatest stars in fight sports activities, and he is defending his title towards one of the crucial harmful strikers in MMA in Rountree. Pennington is arguably the least-regarded champion within the promotion, however Pena, a former champion, has the sort of presence to make for a extra eventful title reign.
A future Pena-Harrison main-event title match will headline a pay-per-view if Harrison defeats Viera as anticipated. Harrison is a famous person, and Pena is an ideal foe for a rivalry that would outline the present technology of ladies’s bantamweights.
Who is aware of, maybe the fighter who emerges victorious from this potential title matchup may lure Amanda Nunes out of retirement. The Wonderboy-Buckley battle may have an explosive ending, as each males are among the many promotion’s most explosive and dynamic fighters.
In any case, the lineup of fights is fairly spectacular and will make October arguably the largest month of the yr for the promotion. The month ends with UFC 308 in Saudi Arabia, the place Ilia Topuria will defend his featherweight title towards Max Holloway.
It will likely be a really eventful fourth quarter for the UFC in 2024.