UFC President, Dana White, announced Wednesday night that the UFC will feature its first ever event in Saudi Arabia on June 22 for UFC 300. The main event of the card will be between middleweights Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker. The winner of the fight will be in line for a title shot against current middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, White announced.
🚨🚨🚨🚨 https://t.co/TYAdwy1hY0
— UFC (@ufc) March 28, 2024
Chimaev (13-0) hasn’t fought since he defeated former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 in October by majority decision. He was advocating to fight Du Plessis for the title at UFC 300 in April, unfortunately Du Plessis wouldn’t of been available due to him suffering injuries to both legs when he beat Sean Strickland at UFC 297 in January for the title. Du Plessis is expected to be ready to go by the Summer of 2024.
Whittaker (26-7), a former middleweight champ, is coming off a unanimous-decision win over Paulo Costa in February. It was his first fight since a TKO loss to Du Plessis in July 2023. Whittaker isn’t no stranger to rematches as he fought former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya twice and fell short both times. Whittaker will have a chance to make a rematch possible with Du Plessis if he can get past the unbeaten Chimaev.
The other four other fights that White announced for UFC 300 on the Saudi Arabia card will be: Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alexander Volkov, Kelvin Gastelum vs. Daniel Rodriguez, Johnny Walker vs. Volkan Oezdemir and Shara Magomedov vs. Ihor Potieria.
Fight fans will be happy to know that The UFC Fight Night card will air for free on ABC.
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