UFC
273 will feature a championship doubleheader at the top of the
card.
Alexander
Volkanovski will defend his featherweight crown against
Chan
Sung Jung, while Aljamain
Sterling and Petr Yan will
meet in a bantamweight title rematch on April 9 at an as yet to be
determined location. Ariel Helwani was first to report
the UFC 273 title bouts.
Volkanovski was initially slated to face Max
Holloway in a trilogy bout at UFC 272 on March 5, but the
Hawaiian was forced to pull out of the fight with an undisclosed
injury. Sterling vs. Yan was also scheduled for UFC 272, but their
bout was postponed for one month, which “The Funkmaster”
claimed was due to his opponent.
The 33-year-old Volkanovski claimed the featherweight crown with a
unanimous decision triumph over Holloway at UFC 245 before winning
a highly-contentious split verdict in their rematch at UFC 251.
Most recently, he defended the strap with a decision win over
Brian
Ortega in a “Fight of the Year” candidate at UFC 266 this past
September to run his professional winning streak to 20.
This will be Jung’s second championship opportunity after “The
Korean Zombie” fell to Jose Aldo in a
featherweight title tilt at UFC 163 in August 2013. The Fight Ready
member has won three of his four promotional appearances since 2019
and is coming off a five-round verdict over Dan Ige in the
UFC on ESPN 25 headliner on June 19.
Sterling captured bantamweight gold in controversial fashion at UFC
259, when an illegal knee from Yan in the fourth round of their
title tilt resulted in a disqualification victory for “The Funk
Master.” Sterling is currently on a six-bout UFC winning streak
that includes triumphs over the likes of Cory
Sandhagen, Pedro
Munhoz and Jimmie
Rivera. Sterling was supposed to face Yan in a rematch this
past October but the fight was postponed as the Serra-Longo Fight
Team member recovered from neck surgery.
Yan, who most felt was winning the fight with Sterling before the
untimely foul, claimed the interim belt with a decision win over
Cory
Sandhagen in his most recent outing at UFC 267. Prior to the
Sterling bout, “No Mercy” was on a 10-bout professional winning
streak that included a thrashing of Jose Aldo to
claim the vacant bantamweight throne at UFC 251.