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:
Saturday 9 April – UFC 273 – VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville
Main card
Alexander Volkanovski (C) vs Chan Sung Jung (featherweight title)
Aljamain Sterling (C) vs Petr Yan (IC) (bantamweight title)
Gilbert Burns vs Khamzat Chimaev (welterweight)
Mackenzie Dern vs Tecia Torres (women’s strawweight)
Aleksei Oleinik vs Jared Vanderaa (heavyweight)
Prelims
Raquel Pennington vs Aspen Ladd (women’s bantamweight)
Ian Garry vs Darian Weeks (welterweight)
Anthony Hernandez vs Josh Fremd (middleweight)
Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Marcin Tybura (heavyweight)
Mickey Gall vs Mike Malott (welterweight)
Julio Arce vs Daniel Santos (bantamweight)
Vinc Pichel vs Mark Madsen (lightweight)
Piera Rodriguez vs Kay Hansen (women’s strawweight)
Saturday 16 April – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Vicente Luque vs Belal Muhammad (welterweight)
Mayra Bueno Silva vs Wu Yanan (women’s bantamweight)
Chris Barnett vs Martin Buday (heavyweight)
Rafa Garcia vs Jesse Ronson (lightweight)
Melsik Baghdasaryan vs TJ Laramie (featherweight)
Saturday 23 April – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas
Amanda Lemos vs Jessica Andrade (women’s strawweight)
Tanner Boser vs Rodrigo Nascimento Ferreira (heavyweight)
Saturday 7 May – UFC 274 – Footprint Center, Phoenix
Charles Oliveira (C) vs Justin Gaethje (lightweight title)
Rose Namajunas (C) vs Carla Esparza 2 (women’s strawweight title)
Michael Chandler vs Tony Ferguson (lightweight)
Donald Cerrone vs Joe Lauzon (lightweight)
Mauricio Rua vs Ovince Saint Preux (light heavyweight)
Tracy Cortez vs Melissa Gatto (women’s flyweight)
Blagoy Ivanov vs Marcos Rogerio de Lima (heavyweight)
Macy Chiasson vs Norma Dumont (women’s featherweight)
Randy Brown vs Khaos Williams (welterweight)
Francisco Trinaldo vs Danny Roberts (welterweight)
Brandon Royval vs Matt Schnell (flyweight)
Kleydson Rodrigues vs CJ Vergara (flyweight)
Ariane Carnelossi vs Loopy Godinez (women’s strawweight)
Journey Newson vs Fernie Garcie (bantamweight)
