BREAKING: Multiple sources inform me Josh
Emmett has booked his UFC return against Dan Ige at
#UFC269. This card is amazing. https://t.co/piGxeq51Oa— Cole Shelton (@ColeShelton91)
October 22, 2021
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. Top-10 Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweights
will dance on a card that is already stacked from bow to stern. The year-end UFC pay-per-view card of UFC
269, which already has a full main card as listed by the
organization, has gained another major fight. Josh Emmett
(16-2) will make his return after a year and a half away to take on
Dan Ige
(15-4) in a battle that practically guarantees action from bell to
bell. The news of this Dec. 11 booking was first reported by
BJPenn.com
late on Thursday, and it was subsequently by multiple outlets and
the UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN
on Friday.
The fight will be Emmett’s first since he took on Shane
Burgos in a “Fight of the Night” battle across three rounds at
UFC on ESPN 11 in June 2020. The 36-year-old out of Team Alpha Male
is currently riding a three-fight win streak, with knockouts of
Michael
Johnson and Mirsad
Bektic leading up to his battle with Burgos. This win streak is
currently the longest in his UFC tenure, as a pair of victorious
two-fight stretches ended when Desmond
Green and Jeremy
Stephens defeated him in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Ige’s only two UFC headlining appearances, coming in 2020 and 2021,
saw him drop five-round unanimous decisions to Calvin
Kattar and Chan Sung
Jung. Those two losses surrounded a 22-second knockout of
Gavin
Tucker in March. Before falling short to Kattar, Ige had won
six bouts in a row, beating the likes of Edson
Barboza, Bektic and Kevin
Aguilar as he worked his way up the featherweight ladder.
The overstuffed UFC 269 event on Dec. 11 will be held inside the
T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with two title fights atop the big
show. Headlining the event is a much-anticipated lightweight clash
as Charles
Oliveira tries to defend his belt for the first time against
ex-interim champ Dustin
Poirier. The co-main event draws a bantamweight championship
affair when Amanda
Nunes looks to hold an iron grip on her throne against Julianna
Pena. Other main card tilts include Leon
Edwards vs. Jorge
Masvidal at welterweight, Kai Kara
France against Cody
Garbrandt in the flyweight division, and Raulian
Paiva against Sean
O’Malley at 135 pounds.
