Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White took to
social media to announce three potential nail-biters for the
UFC
295 co-main event along with the UFC 296
main and co-main headliners. The UFC 295 card, which will go down
at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 11, will be headlined
by Jon
Jones’ (27-1) first heavyweight title defense against fellow
legend Stipe
Miocic (20-4).
White has now declared that the vacant UFC light heavyweight title
will be up for grabs in the co-main event of the night. Alex
Pereira (8-2) will challenge Jiri
Prochazka (29-3) for the strap, which was vacated by Jamahal
Hill back in June due to a ruptured Achilles.
“Poatan” won the middleweight title, lost it, moved up a weight
class and defeated former champ Jan
Blachowicz to earn his second title bid within a span of just
six UFC outings. Meanwhile, Prochazka hasn’t competed in a year and
a half ever since he had to vacate the light heavyweight title due
to a shoulder injury that required surgery.
White also finally announced the much overdue welterweight title
clash between Leon
Edwards (21-3) and Colby
Covington (17-3), which will headline UFC 296 on Dec. 16 at
T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. After Edwards’ title defense against
Kamaru
Usman in a trilogy bout earlier this year at UFC 286, White has
been adamant about Covington getting the next shot, much to the
dismay of other elite 170 pounders.
The card will be co-headlined by a flyweight title clash between
Alexandre
Pantoja (26-5) and Brandon
Royval (15-6). The champion, Pantoja, will look to repeat
history in the rematch after submitting Royval in Round 2 of their
initial clash back in 2021.