Dana White has confirmed that Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev will finally do battle for the middleweight title this August.
The duo have been on a collision course since Du Plessis won the belt from Sean Strickland last year. Now, after two defenses of his title the South African is giving Chimaev his shot at the gold in one of the most highly-anticipated bouts of the year.
The fight will take place on August 16 at the United Center in Chicago and serves as the main event of UFC 319. White made a slew of big announcements this evening in an Instagram live video including the long-awaited main event of International Fight Week’s big UFC 317 event.
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Dricus Du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev confirmed for UFC 319
Dana White announced today via Instagram Live that the main event for UFC 319 will see Dricus Du Plessis defend his middleweight title against Khamzat Chimaev. The bout takes place at the 22,000-capacity United Center in Chicago on August 16.
There had been rumours that Du Plessis was injured and pulled out of a prospective bout on International Fight Week. But those reports were squashed and a new date was found shortly afterward as the pair signed on to headline in Chicago.
The fight marks Chimaev’s return to fight in America for the first time since September of 2022 when he took on Kevin Holland in a bizarre UFC 279 showdown. That week he showed up comically overweight for his fight with Nate Diaz, which caused the entire card to be shifted around on hours’ notice.
Since then, he has been resigned to once a year events in Abu Dhabi, defeating former world champions Kamaru Usman and Robert Whittaker in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Dana White announced further fights in bumper Instagram Live session
The UFC 319 main event wasn’t the only fight announced by Dana White during his latest appearance on Instagram Live. He has become known for teasing surprise appearances on his social media page, where he has over 10.4million followers, and delivered in a major way tonight.
While fans are now no closer to finding out what is happening between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall at heavyweight, we at least now know the situation at lightweight. Ilia Topuria is facing Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 317.
He also announced that Shara Magomedov will return at UFC Abu Dhabi on the undercard of Robert Whittaker vs Reinier De Ridder.