Fights on Tap is a weekly roundup of all the fights booked in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions.
Are you still reeling from UFC 269 on Saturday night? We are too, but there are already some new fights to look ahead to in the upcoming year. The UFC either announced or finalized 10 of them this week, and a championship rematch in the middleweight division has been made official.
After months of speculation, Israel Adesanya will meet Robert Whittaker again, this time as the headliner of UFC 271 on Feb. 12 live from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The two previously shared the Octagon over two years ago at UFC 243, where Adesanya won and unified the middleweight championship with a stunning second-round knockout over Whittaker.
‘The Last Stylebender’ went on the successfully defend his title twice against Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa before moving up in weight to challenge then-champion Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight championship at UFC 259 this past March. Adesanya suffered the first defeat of his professional career after losing a unanimous decision to Blachowicz. He returned to his division for a rematch against Marvin Vettori, who he dominated throughout five rounds and en route to a decision win.
Whittaker rebounded from his loss to Adesanya with three consecutive wins over top-ranked contenders. ‘The Reaper’ earned unanimous decisions over Darren Till, Jared Cannonier, and Kelvin Gastelum.
UFC Vegas 45 — December 18
Raquel Pennington vs. Macy Chiasson — women’s bantamweight
Raoni Barcelos vs. Victor Henry — bantamweight
UFC Fight Night — January 15
Caio Borralho vs. Jamie Pickett — middleweight
Gabriel Benitez vs. TJ Brown — featherweight
UFC 271 — February 12
Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker — middleweight
UFC Fight Night — February 19
Diana Belbita vs. Gloria de Paula — women’s strawweight
UFC Fight Night — February 26
Gregory Rodrigues vs. Armen Petrosyan — middleweight
UFC Fight Night — March 19
Muhammad Mokaev vs. Cody Durden — flyweight
Mike Grundy vs. Makwan Amirkhani — featherweight
UFC Fight Night — March 26
Amanda Ribas vs. Michelle Waterson — women’s strawweight
Announced Cage Warriors fights:
Cage Warriors 133 — March 18
Jordan Vucenic vs. Paul Hughes — featherweight
Announced RIZIN fights:
RIZIN 33 — December 31
Roberto ‘Satoshi’ de Souza vs. Yusuke Yachi — lightweight
Yutaka Saito vs. Mikuru Asakura — featherweight
Ayaka Hamasaki vs. Seika Izawa — women’s atomweight
Kyohei Hagiwara vs. Hiroaki Suzuki — featherweight
Koji Takeda vs. Noah Bey — lightweight
Shoma Shibisai vs. Hideki Sekine — heavyweight
Kai Asakura vs. Kenta Takizawa — bantamweight
Hiromasa Ogikubo vs. Naoki Inoue — bantamweight
Yuki Motoya vs. Yuto Hokamura — bantamweight
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