Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. The new year is starting off troubling for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which lost a
pair of promising Brazilian fighters from the first pay-per-view of
2022. On Thursday morning,
MMA Junkie announced that Warlley
Alves (14-5) had been forced out of his welterweight clash with
the debuting Jack
Della Maddalena (10-2) for currently undisclosed reasons.
Several hours later,
ESPN Deportes broke the story that ranked flyweight Viviane
Araujo (10-3) will no longer be facing Alexa
Grasso (13-3) due to an injury. The organization is seeking
replacements for both Alves and Araujo at UFC
270, which will take place on Jan. 22 at the Honda Center in
Anaheim, Calif.
Winner of the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” Alves
has struggled as of late to gain any momentum in any direction. The
Brazilian has alternated wins and losses in his last six dating
back to 2018, and none of those six bouts have gone the distance.
In 2021, he rebounded from his first submission loss against
Randy
Brown by knocking Mounir
Lazzez out in half a round, only to get smashed by Jeremiah
Wells six months later.
Maddalena, a signee out of the 2021 season of Dana White’s Contender Series, finds himself on
an impressive 10-fight win streak coming into his promotional
debut. At DWCS against Ange Loosa,
he went to the scorecards for the first time in his career,
impressing the matchmaking team and UFC head Dana White enough to
snare a contract. A whopping 80% of the Aussie’s wins have come by
knockout, all within two rounds.
Since making her promotional debut in 2019, Araujo has only fallen
short to ex-title challengers Jessica Eye
and Katlyn
Chookagian, while overcoming names including Roxanne
Modafferi, Alexis
Davis and Montana
De La Rosa on her way up the division. The 35-year-old from
Brazil was aiming to start 2022 off right, as it would have been
about one year since her previous victory on Jan. 20, 2021, which
came over the aforementioned Modafferi. Her last three victories
have come on the scorecards, which accounts for all of the decision
wins of her career.
Grasso will be awaiting a new name, likely against a ranked
opponent if available, as she looks to extend her win streak to
three. In 2020 she topped Ji Yeon Kim
by decision, and came back in February 2021 to claim a unanimous
verdict over the highly touted Maycee
Barber. The fighter out of Mexico moved up to flyweight after
struggling on the scales in early 2020 to reach the 115-pound mark,
and has won ever since.
UFC 270 will be staged inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.,
on Jan. 22. The main attraction comes in the form of a heavyweight
title unification battle when feared knockout artist Francis
Ngannou takes on unbeaten Frenchman Ciryl Gane.
The co-headliner sees a trilogy match for flyweight gold when
Brandon
Moreno looks to defend his strap for the first time against
ex-125-pound kingpin Deiveson
Figueiredo. An additional highly anticipated main card tilt
will take place at featherweight, when two undefeated prospects in
Movsar
Evloev and Ilia
Topuria clash.
