Following one of the most successful and engrossing years in the history of the UFC, the mixed martial arts promotion will look to keep building in 2022.
2021 saw Conor McGregor fight twice, marking his most active year since 2016. The Irishman lost to Dustin Poirier in each outing, suffering a horrific broken leg in the most recent, but he is targeting a summer return to the Octagon.
Elsewhere, newer stars like Israel Adesanya, Khamzat Chimaev and Sean O’Malley are looking to further enhance their legacies and profiles, while featherweight queen Amanda Nunes will surely seek to regain her bantamweight belt after losing it to Julianna Pena in a major upset in December.
Islam Makhachev continues to pursue his goal of becoming lightweight champion to follow in the footsteps of his close friend and cornerman Khabib Nurmagomedov, while the men’s bantamweight division is set to see a unification bout between its interim champion Petr Yan and official title holder Aljamain Sterling – with the heavyweight title having been unified in January when Francis Ngannou outpointed Ciryl Gane.
Here are all the UFC events and fights announced for the coming weeks and months (cards subject to change):
Saturday 1 October – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Main card
Mackenzie Dern vs Yan Xiaonan (women’s strawweight)
Sodiq Yusuff vs Don Shainis (featherweight)
Randy Brown vs Francisco Trinaldo (welterweight)
Prelims
Raoni Barcelos vs Trevin Jones (bantamweight)
Jessica Penne vs Tabatha Ricci (women’s strawweight)
John Castaneda vs Daniel Santos (bantamweight)
Saturday 15 October – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Viviane Araujo vs Alexa Grasso (women’s flyweight)
Misha Cirkunov vs Alonzo Menifield (light heavyweight)
Raphael Assuncao vs Victor Henry (bantamweight)
Tatsuro Taira vs CJ Vergara (flyweight)
Saturday 22 October – UFC 280 – Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi
Charles Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev (vacant lightweight title)
Aljamain Sterling (C) vs TJ Dillashaw (bantamweight title)
Petr Yan vs Sean O’Malley (bantamweight)
Beneil Dariush vs Mateusz Gamrot (lightweight)
Katlyn Chookagian vs Manon Fiorot (women’s flyweight)
Belal Muhammad vs Sean Brady (welterweight)
Makhmud Muradov vs Caio Borralho (middleweight)
Volkan Oezdemir vs Nikita Krylov (light heavyweight)
Marina Rodriguez vs Amanda Lemos (women’s strawweight)
Zubaira Tukhugov vs Lucas Almeida (featherweight)
Saturday 29 October – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Calvin Kattar vs Arnold Allen (featherweight)
Saturday 12 November – UFC 281 – Madison Square Garden, New York City
Israel Adesanya (C) vs Alex Pereira (middleweight title)
Carla Esparza (C) vs Weili Zhang (women’s strawweight title)
Dustin Poirier vs Michael Chandler (lightweight)
Matt Frevola vs Ottman Azaitar (lightweight)
Erin Blanchfield vs Molly McCann (women’s flyweight)
Brad Riddell vs Renato Moicano (lightweight)
Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs Silvan Gomez Juarez (women’s strawweight)
Dominick Reyes vs Ryan Spann (light heavyweight)
Michael Trizano vs Seungwoo Choi (featherweight)
Saturday 19 November – UFC Fight Night – TBA
Derrick Lewis vs Serghei Spivac (heavyweight)
Saturday 3 December – UFC Fight Night – TBA, Orlando
TBA vs TBA
Saturday 17 December – UFC Fight Night – TBA
Jared Cannonier vs Sean Strickland (middleweight)
Jamal Pogues vs Tafon Nchukwi (light heavyweight)
