OH. MY. GOODNESS.
@DricusDuPlessis
putting South Africa on the map!
#UFC264 pic.twitter.com/kinqJld3o9— UFC (@ufc)
July 11, 2021
Barring any late additions or cancellations, the lineup for
UFC
273 appears to be nearly complete.
The Las Vegas-based promotion confirmed multiple rumored bouts for
the April 9 event in a release on Tuesday, including a middleweight
clash between Dricus Du
Plessis and Chris
Curtis. UFC 273 will take place at Vystar Veteran’s Memorial
Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., and is headlined by a featherweight
title tilt between Alexander
Volkanovski and Chan Sung
Jung. In the co-main event, Aljamain
Sterling and Petr Yan will
square off in a bantamweight championship rematch.
The UFC has made Jacksonville a regular destination for major
events since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“It’s an honor to welcome back the UFC and its president, Dana
White, to the city of Jacksonville,” Mayor Lenny Curry said. “I
reached out to Dana in December to let him know we were ready to
host another match-up as soon as possible, and as he always does,
Dana delivered. Our city has consistently demonstrated that we are
poised to host world-class sporting events of this caliber and we
can’t wait to see the UFC, and its thousands of fans, in early
April.”
The following six bouts were also made official for UFC 273:
Vinc
Pichel vs. Mark O.
Madsen at lightweight; Ian Garry vs.
Darian
Weeks at welterweight; Albert
Duraev vs. Anthony
Hernandez at middleweight; Mickey Gall
vs. Mike
Malott at weltwerweight; Julio Arce
vs. Daniel
Gustavo
Santos at bantamweight and Kay Hansen
vs. Piera
Rodriguez at strawweight.
A former KSW champion, Du Plessis has kicked off his UFC tenure
with knockout victories against Markus
Perez and Trevin
Giles. The South African owns a 16-2 career mark, with all of
his triumphs coming inside the distance.
Curtis was one of the breakout fighters of 2021, posting a 6-0 mark
with five victories via KO or TKO. That included a pair of
significant victories in the Octagon, as “The Action Man” shocked
Phil
Hawes via first-round knockout at UFC 268 before stopping
Brendan
Allen in the second frame at UFC on ESPN 31.