The
Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to pay-per-view with an
exciting bantamweight title fight sitting atop the UFC
299 card.
The championship fight between titleholder Sean
O’Malley and challenger Marlon Vera
is now official after both men successfully made weight. So is the
five-round co-main event between Dustin
Poirier and Benoit St.
Denis. As for the rest of the card, all fighters made weight
except for C.J. Vergara,
who came in one pound over the flyweight limit for his fight
against Asu
Almabaev and has received a 30% fine of his purse.
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This marks the first attempted title defense for O’Malley (17-1, 1
NC), who knocked out Aljamain
Sterling to claim his spot at the top of the 135-pound
division. Prior to the championship win, “Sugar” scored wins over
Petr
Yan, Raulian
Paiva and Kris
Moutinho. O’Malley’s lone professional defeat was to Vera, who
finished off the MMA Lab product within a single round of their
2020 fight. “Sugar” officially weighed 135 pounds on the dot.
Since beating O’Malley, Vera (23-8-1) has won five of his last
seven fights. His most recent setback was a split decision loss to
Cory
Sandhagen, which he followed up with by defeating Pedro
Munhoz. “Chito” also has wins over Dominick
Cruz, Rob Font and
Frankie
Edgar on his ledger. The title challenger stepped on the scale
at 135 pounds.
UFC 299 main card will air live on ESPN+ pay-per-view at 10 p.m.
ET/7 p.m. PT on Saturday. Prelims begin at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT on
ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass before moving to ESPN and ESPN+ at 8 p.m.
ET/5 p.m. PT.
UFC 299 Weigh-in Results:
Sean
O’Malley (135) vs. Marlon Vera
(135)
Dustin
Poirier (156) vs. Benoit St.
Denis (155)
Kevin
Holland (170) vs. Michael
Page (170)
Gilbert
Burns (171) vs. Jack
Della Maddalena (170)
Yadong
Song (136) vs. Petr Yan
(135)
Jailton
Almeida (241) vs. Curtis
Blaydes (257)
Maycee
Barber (125) vs. Katlyn
Cerminara (125)
Rafael dos
Anjos (156) vs. Mateusz
Gamrot (156)
Pedro
Munhoz (135) vs. Kyler
Phillips (135)
Ion
Cutelaba (205) vs. Philipe
Lins (206)
Michal
Oleksiejczuk (185) vs. Michel
Pereira (186)
Robelis
Despaigne (261) vs. Josh
Parisian (266)
Asu
Almabaev (126) vs. C.J. Vergara
(127)*
Maryna
Moroz (126) vs. Joanne Wood
(125)
* Vergara missed weight by one pound and has been fined 30% of
his purse.