Fights on Tap is a weekly roundup of all the fights booked in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions.
There are three months left in 2021, so the UFC is going all out with its recent additions to the final pay-per-view and fight night events of the year. The promotion either announced or finalized 27 fights this week, and an interim bantamweight championship between No. 1 and No. 3 in the division has been set.
Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling were going to meet at UFC 267 in October for an immediate rematch stemming from their controversial outing at UFC 259 earlier this year. However, Sterling revealed that he is still dealing with some nerve issues from a recent neck surgery and could not obtain medical clearance to compete. Yan wanted to remain on the card and got his wish as Cory Sandhagen has been tapped as the replacement for Sterling. Yan and Sandhagen now fight for the interim bantamweight championship and the winner will go on the unify the titles against Sterling once he is allowed to return to the Octagon.
Some other interesting bantamweight fights have been added to the schedule, with Rob Font vs. José Aldo and Dominick Cruz vs. Pedro Munhoz among the highlights.
UFC Vegas 40 — October 16
Sijara Eubanks vs. Luana Carolina — women’s flyweight
UFC 267 — October 30
Petr Yan vs. Cory Sandhagen — bantamweight
Islam Makhachev vs. Dan Hooker — lightweight
Makwan Amirkhani vs. Lerone Murphy — featherweight
Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos vs. Benoît St. Denis — welterweight
UFC Vegas 42 — November 13
Thiago Moisés vs. Joel Alvarez — lightweight
UFC Vegas 43 — November 20
Miesha Tate vs. Ketlen Vieira — women’s bantamweight
Tai Tuivasa vs. Augusto Sakai — heavyweight
Jessica Penne vs. Luana Pinheiro — women’s strawweight
Denys Bondar vs. Malcolm Gordon — flyweight
UFC Vegas 44 — December 4
Rob Font vs. José Aldo — bantamweight
Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs. Manel Kape — flyweight
Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tanner Boser — heavyweight
UFC 269 — December 11
Dominick Cruz vs. Pedro Munhoz — bantamweight
Sean O’Malley vs. Raulian Paiva — bantamweight
UFC Vegas 45 — December 18
Chris Daukaus vs. Derrick Lewis — heavyweight
Darren Elkins vs. Cub Swanson — featherweight
Raquel Pennington vs. Julia Avila — women’s bantamweight
UFC Vegas 46 — January 15
Brandon Royval vs. Rogerio Bontorin — flyweight
Jasmine Jasudavicius vs. Kay Hansen — women’s flyweight
Brian Kelleher vs. Saidyokub Kakhramonov — bantamweight
UFC 270 — January 22
Jared Cannonier vs. Derek Brunson — middleweight
Alexey Oleynik vs. Greg Hardy Jr. — heavyweight
Jacob Malkoun vs. AJ Dobson — middleweight
Rodolfo Vieira vs. Wellington Turman — middleweight
Ji Yeon Kim vs. Poliana Botelho — women’s flyweight
UFC Fight Night — February 5
Marc-André Barriault vs. Chidi Njokuani — middleweight
Announced Professional Fighters League (PFL) fights:
PFL 2021 Championship Event — October 27
Julia Budd vs. Kaitlin Young — women’s lightweight
Announced Cage Warriors fights:
Cage Warriors 130 — October 17
Tyler Escoto vs. Cesar Gonzalez — lightweight
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