When Khabib Nurmagomedov vacated the UFC's lightweight title and retired from mixed martial arts 2 years ago, the sport's expectations turned to his longtime teammate and protégé, Islam Makhachev. And present his clip has come.
Makhachev (22-1) volition effort to triumph the UFC's 155-pound rubric connected Saturday erstwhile helium meets Charles Oliveira (33-8) successful the main lawsuit of UFC 280 wrong Etihad Arena successful Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The pay-per-view airs astatine a peculiar clip of 2 p.m. ET.
The timing of the matchup astir apt couldn't beryllium immoderate better. Makhachev was ever expected to combat for the loop astatine immoderate point, and helium volition present bash truthful against a foe successful Oliveira whom nary 1 wants to stake against. Oliveira has battled done adversity successful each of his 3 rubric defenses against Michael Chandler, Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje earlier earning a finish.
The Brazilian combatant has won 11 successful a row, securing 10 finishes successful the process. The lone crushed helium is not technically the lightweight champion this week is that helium missed value by one-half lb up of his astir caller triumph against Gaethje successful May.
In summation to the main event, bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling (21-3) volition support his rubric against TJ Dillashaw (17-4), who surrendered it successful 2019 aft helium tested affirmative for a banned substance. And instrumentality favourite Sean O'Malley (15-1) volition look the biggest trial of his vocation successful Petr Yan (16-3).
Follow on arsenic Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim recap the fights arsenic they happen, oregon watch the paper unrecorded connected ESPN+ PPV.
Fight successful progress: Women's bantamweight: Lina Lansberg (10-6, 4-5 UFC, +260) vs. Karol Rosa (15-4, 4-1 UFC, -330)
Still to come:
Lightweight championship: Charles Oliveira (33-8 1 NC, 21-8 1 NC UFC, +160) vs. Islam Makhachev (22-1, 11-1 UFC, -190)
Men's bantamweight championship: Aljamain Sterling (c) (21-3, 13-3 UFC, -165) vs. TJ Dillashaw (18-4, 13-4 UFC, +140)
Men's bantamweight: Petr Yan (16-3, 8-2 UFC, -280) vs. Sean O'Malley (15-1 1 NC, 7-1 1 NC UFC, +230)
Lightweight: Beneil Dariush (21-4-1, 15-4-1 UFC, +170) vs. Mateusz Gamrot (21-1, 4-1 UFC, -200)
Women's flyweight: Katlyn Chookagian (18-4, 11-4 UFC, +175) vs. Manon Fiorot (9-1, 4-0 UFC, -210)
Welterweight: Belal Muhammad (21-3 1 NC, 12-1 1 NC UFC, +120) vs. Sean Brady (15-0, 5-0 UFC, -140)
Middleweight: Makhmud Muradov (25-7,3-1 UFC, +170) vs. Caio Borralho (12-1, 2-0 UFC, -200)
Light heavyweight: Nikita Krylov (28-9, 9-7 UFC, -170) vs. Volkan Oezdemir (18-6, 6-5 UFC, +145)
Welterweight: Abubakar Nurmagomedov (16-3-1, 1-1 UFC, -165) vs. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev (13-1, 0-1 UFC, +140)
Middleweight: Armen Petrosyan (7-2, 1-1 UFC, -220) vs. AJ Dobson (6-1, 0-1 UFC, +180)
Men's flyweight: Malcolm Gordon (14-5, 2-2 UFC, +750) vs. Muhammad Mokaev (8-0, 2-0 UFC, -1200)
(c) = defending champion
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