Fights on Tap: Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker II among 10 UFC bouts announced

Fights on Tap is a weekly roundup of all the fights booked in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions. Are you still reeling from…

By: Kristen King | 1 year ago
Fights on Tap: Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker II among 10 UFC bouts announced
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

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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About the author
Kristen King
Kristen King

Kristen King is a writer for Bloody Elbow. She has covered combat sports since 2016, getting her start with outlets such as FanSided, MyMMANews and MMA-Prospects. She joined the BE team in 2020, covering a mix of news, events and injuries. In her time with BE, Kristen has created ‘Fright of the Night,’ a series that highlights some of the worst injuries in the sport.

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