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 3 December – UFC Fight Night – Amway Center, Orlando
Main card
Stephen Thompson vs Kevin Holland (welterweight)
Bryan Barberena vs Rafael dos Anjos (welterweight)
Matheus Nicolau vs Matt Schnell (flyweight)
Tai Tuivasa vs Sergei Pavlovich (heavyweight)
Derek Brunson vs Jack Hermansson (middleweight)
Eryk Anders vs Kyle Daukaus (middleweight)
Prelims
Niko Price vs Phil Rowe (welterweight)
Angela Hill vs Emily Ducote (women’s strawweight)
Clay Guida vs Scott Holtzman (lightweight)
Michael Johnson vs Marc Diakiese (lightweight)
Darren Elkins vs Jonathan Pearce (featherweight)
Tracy Cortez vs Amanda Ribas (women’s flyweight)
Natan Levy vs Genaro Valdez (lightweight)
Marcelo Rojo vs Francis Marshall (featherweight)
Yazmin Jauregui vs Istela Nunes (women’s strawweight)
Saturday 10 December – UFC 282 – T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
Main card
Jan Blachowicz vs Magomed Ankalaev (vacant light heavyweight title)
Paddy Pimblett vs Jared Gordon (lightweight)
Darren Till vs Dricus Du Plessis (middleweight)
Robbie Lawler vs Santiago Ponzinibbio (welterweight)
Alexander Gustafsson vs Ovince Saint Preux (light heavyweight)
Prelims
Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Chris Daukaus (heavyweight)
Chris Curtis vs Jaoquin Buckley (middleweight)
Edmen Shahbazyan vs Dalcha Lungiambula (middleweight)
Billy Quarantillo vs Alexander Hernandez (featherweight)
TJ Brown vs Erik Silva (featherweight)
Ronnie Lawrence vs Cameron Saaiman (bantamweight)
Vinicius Salvador vs Daniel da Silva (flyweight)
Saturday 17 December – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Jared Cannonier vs Sean Strickland (middleweight)
Alex Caceres vs Julian Erosa (featherweight)
Jake Matthews vs Matthew Semelsberger (welterweight)
Rafa Garcia vs Maheshate (lightweight)
Michael Morales vs Rinat Fakhretdinov (welterweight)
Arman Tsarukyan vs Damir Ismagulov (lightweight)
Albert Duraev vs Michal Oleksiejczuk (middleweight)
Brandon Royval vs Amir Albazi (flyweight)
Julian Marquez vs Deron Winn (middleweight)
Sergey Morozov vs Journey Newson (bantamweight)
Cheyanne Vlismas vs Cory McKenna (women’s strawweight)
Said Nurmagomedov vs Saidyokub Kakhramonov (bantamweight)
