Fights on Tap is a weekly roundup of all the fights booked in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions.
For everything that happened throughout the week, UFC 279 was a decent offering. After a reshuffling of the event on 24 hours’ notice, Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev—the original headliners—ended the night with respective wins over Tony Ferguson and Kevin Holland. With that card now behind us, we can look at what we have ahead of us on the upcoming schedule.
The UFC either announced or finalized five fights this week, and a much-anticipated clash between two of the best lightweights is set.
Get ready, folks. This should be a fun one. Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler is finally official (thank you for planting the seed, Gilbert Burns!). The lightweights are expected to share the Octagon at UFC 281, the upcoming pay-per-view event scheduled for Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Poirier returns for his first appearance in 2022. The ‘Diamond’ has not fought since suffering a third-round rear-naked choke loss to former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 269 last December.
Chandler snapped a two-fight losing streak with a ‘Knockout of the Year’ contender after finishing the aforementioned Ferguson with a front kick at UFC 274 this past May.
Announced UFC fights:
UFC VEGAS 60 — September 17
Loma Lookboonmee vs. Denise Gomes — women’s strawweight
UFC VEGAS 62 — October 15
Nick Maximov vs. Jacob Malkoun — middleweight
First rep. by Brett Appley of The Athletic
UFC 281 — November 12
Andre Petroski vs. Wellington Turman — middleweight
First rep. by Petroski on Instagram
Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler — lightweight
First rep. by Ariel Helwani and later confirmed by Brett Okamoto of ESPN
UFC 282 — December 10
Darren Till vs. Dricus du Plessis — middleweight
First rep. by Brett Okamoto of ESPN
Announced Cage Warriors fights:
Cage Warriors 143 — September 23
Jeff Craig vs. Chasen Blair — welterweight
Tyler Escoto vs. Orlando Sanders — welterweight
John de Jesus vs. Brandon Laroco — featherweight
Brian Mitchell vs. Robert Hernandez — featherweight
Cage Warriors 144 — October 7
Jasmine Favero vs. Awa Sow — women’s bantamweight
Cage Warriors 145 — November 4
Cameron Else vs. Nathan Fletcher — bantamweight
Caolan Loughran vs. Luke Shanks — bantamweight
Cage Warriors 146 — November 12
Manny Akpan vs. Dean Trueman — featherweight
Gavin Hughes vs. Chris Bungard — lightweight
Reece McEwan vs. Adam Wilson — bantamweight
Announced KSW fights:
KSW 75 — October 14
Ibragim Chuzhigaev vs. Ivan Erslan — light heavyweight
Robert Ruchała vs. Damian Stasiak — featherweight
KSW 76 — November 12
Marian Ziółkowski vs. Salahdine Parnasse — lightweight
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